Colorado Politics

Travel industry: Economic impact of COVID-19 nine times worse than 9/11

A new analysis from the country’s travel industry has estimated that the economic impact of the coronavirus will be nine times worse than what the industry experienced after the 9/11 terror attacks.

The U.S. Travel Association released a report from Oxford Economics that calculated there will be a $519 billion drop in travel spending this year due to the pandemic. Including lost jobs, spending and tax revenue, the total impact is an estimated $1.2 trillion, which was nine times the revenue effect of 9/11. Most of the losses are attributable to declines in domestic travel.

The Colorado Tourism Office has advertised that “now is not the time to vacation in Colorado,” while acknowledging the positive effect that the stay-at-home order has had on diminishing the transmission of the coronavirus.

The Oxford study predicted that if travel among people at low-risk of COVID-19 restarted in the second half of the year, up to 1.3 million jobs and $150 billion to the national economy would be restored. In the meantime, the association is calling on Congress for a bailout.

“The CARES Act was a good start, but the data shows there is still extreme and mounting pain in the American travel industry,” said president and CEO Roger Dow. “We’re appealing for fixes, the addition of more relief, faster rules and greater flexibility.”

Among the requests are an expansion of the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides for businesses to cover payroll costs during the pandemic. The program, created by the $2.2 trillion legislation in late March, was intended for small businesses, but loans have since gone out to larger, national chains.

A lone traveller heads directly to the north security checkpoint in Denver International Airport as travellers deal with the spread of coronavirus Friday, March 20, 2020, in Denver. According to the World Health Organization, most people recover in about two to six weeks depending on the severity of the COVID-19 illness. 
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
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