20 Positive News Updates That Gives Us Hope of Travel Economy’s Rebound

by Himani Gaur

As we all sit in our homes obsessing over the increasing number of coronavirus cases, the preventive measures we need to take, and the statistics of the falling economy of the world, here’s Thrillophilia’s small attempt to give you some hope. The travel industry goes through its worst phase and most of us don’t know when or how the industry will make a rebound. Although, some travel industry updates from around the world (especially China and South Korea) speak otherwise. There have been many tourist spots reopening, domestic flights resuming, and travel packages being sold that show that the industry is making a rebound and might follow the same trends everywhere else in the world too.
To instill your trust in the resumption of the travel industry here are some recent positive development towards a brighter future and a quick rebound of the travel economy:

  1. The reopening of Shanghai’s Disneyland and it’s tickets being sold in a matter of minutes after going live. Other than this, business travel in China is also looking up- for the key companies, there might be exemptions on entry ban for executives.
  2. A whopping 10.81 billion Yuan per day was the domestic tourism revenue collected in the first four days of the five-day holiday of Labor Day in China as people travelled to the nearby destinations and their own cities. A majority of restaurants are already starting to look busy in Hong Kong and the UK is planning on reopening a majority of its’ restaurants by July.
  3. Goa, the party capital of India has been announced Coronavirus free and is ready to welcome tourists post the lockdown. Along with Goa, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have also been declared Coronavirus free.
  4. The Czech Republic has eased a majority of their lockdown restrictions and has also lifted international bus and train travel ban on May 11th. This step was taken to help the hard-hit industries of the country. Turkey as well is planning to reopen tourism by June. Greece also will be reopening its sealed international borders soon. Similarly, the tourism hotspot of Mexico- Los Cabos is being planned to be reopened to tourists by June with about 40% hotels reopening
  5. The Polish Government might give domestic travel vouchers worth 1000 Zloty to its citizens to help the tourism industry restart.
  6. Domestic bookings of China’s Airbnb in April have shown an increase of 200% as compared to March.
  7. Other than the already functional flights to London and Frankfurt, Emirates is resuming some flights to Jakarta, Manila, Chicago, Taipei, Tunis, Kabul, and Algiers. Ryanair is also planning to resume 40% of its flights in July, although with strict preventive measures.
  8. Experts predict that many Chinese airlines may see a U shaped recovery soon. According to predictions, passenger traffic will increase after the legislative meeting next week followed by business travel resuming soon after.
  9. Once the most visited country in the world, France has announced a $19 billion financial aid for the tourism industry. The money has been planned for the bailout of hospitality and several other tourism activities.
  10. Most of Japan has been eased by its lockdown restrictions on the 14th of May.  Activities to resume with preventive measures in place.
  11. After several days of no new confirmed case of Coronavirus detected in Phuket, the city is seeking allowance to reopen its’ airports, ports, and road links for tourists.
  12. Iceland has been opened to tourists coming from the Schengen area from the 15th of May. All tourists except the ones from Greenland and Faroe island will have to be in quarantine for two weeks after entering the country. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have also reopened borders for each other with no quarantine requirements.
  13. All branches of Hilton Hotels in mainland China have been reopened and have resumed with their functions as on the 12th of May. Although, strict measures have been taken to ensure everyone’s safety on the premises.
  14. Vietnam is setting an example for the entire world with zero death by Coronavirus and coming out of the lockdown in late April itself. Several of its domestic flights, trains, and buses have already been resumed and the tourism board is in talks with the government to resume some of its international flights soon too.
  15. New Zealand has also eased several of its restrictions. 30% of Air New Zealand domestic flights will soon be operating again with some restrictions in place to enable social distancing.
  16. The Scottish Government has announced a relief package of £2.2 billion to help the tourism industry of Scotland to make a quick rebound.
  17. Singapore too has announced several relief measures for the tourism industry. The government will be funding 90% of training courses for industry professionals to help them enhance their skills.
  18. A EUR 3.5 million grant has been announced by the European Union to support the tourism industry of Sri Lanka- especially the small travel operators and their employees.
  19. The Swiss Government too is considering a relief package of $41.3 million for the tourism industry of Switzerland according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
  20. The latest announcement of a relief package of 3 Lakh Crore to MSMEs by the Indian Government has also given hopes for small and medium-scale travel businesses to recover from the economic downturn and resume their functions.


With this, we end the list and promise to come back with more positive news in a few days!

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As the travel industry stands worst hit by the Coronavirus epidemic, we at Thrillophilia stand dedicated to providing positive news from across the world.

Let’s fight this together with positivity and good vibes!