Sri Lanka, Sept. 16 -- The tourism industry was one of the World's largest and fastest growing industries just 9 months ago. Today, amidst the throes of the COVID crisis, it is all but devastated and gasping for breath.

As the world slowly comes to terms with the deadly virus and the 'new norm' emerges, several industries are slowly recovering. However it will be a long uphill battle for tourism to fully recover from the crisis.

This monograph attempts to understand why the tourism industry is so badly hit and why it will take long to recover.

World Tourism

International tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) worldwide grew 4 percent in 2019 to reach 1.5 billion in 2019, with sustained growth for the 10th successive year (UNWTO World T...