COVID -19 has had a huge effect on our everyday lives. The virus is spreading across the world and we’re all forced to stay at home. This means some businesses had to be closed temporarily while some were forced to completely shut down. As always, some industries got hit much worse, depending on the nature of the sector. With that said, let’s look at eight industries that have been affected by the COVID -19 pandemic.
Tourism
Tourism is probably the worst-hit industry at the moment. The coronavirus pandemic has made traveling extremely difficult and most people choose to stay at home. Even those who had already booked vacations abroad were forced to cancel. With that said, it’s obvious that the tourism industry is facing difficult times. According to some estimates, the COVID -19 pandemic will cost the world tourism industry at least $1.2 trillion. The problem is that we don’t know when things will go back to normal and this number may even increase in the future. While some summer resorts have been reopened in the last couple of weeks, they can’t expect many tourists to show up.
Entertainment
Hollywood has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Almost all film and TV production have been halted when the pandemic started and thousands of crew members were temporarily furloughed. According to some reports, Hollywood could take a $20 billion hit from coronavirus impact. The production of movies such as Nightmare Alley and Jurassic World: Dominion has been temporarily suspended and we still have no clue what their release dates will be. However, it’s not just Hollywood that’s about to lose money. The entertainment industry across the world has been affected by the pandemic and we’re yet to see it return to normal. Some TV shows have temporarily been turned into podcasts with guests showing up through Skype and other platforms.
Dry cleaning and laundry
Dry cleaning and laundry businesses are facing a difficult period as the coronavirus pandemic continues. While most businesses remained open, most people prefer doing their own laundry during the pandemic. Not only this but the shutdown of other businesses means there’s less clothes for dry cleaning and laundry services to handle. This has resulted in people losing their jobs and it doesn’t look it’s going to stop there. According to some reports, over 50 percent of people in the personal and laundry services lost their jobs from February to April this year. Some companies are trying to stay in the game by adding extra sanitizing features to their equipment.
Cryptocurrency
People have been quite skeptical about how well digital currency will perform during the pandemic. Cryptocurrency is known for its volatility and some expected to see Bitcoin and similar currencies drop in value quite soon. While this has happened, those currencies have recovered more quickly than predicted. For example, Bitcoin first fell well under $10,000 but it soon found itself back at $10,500. One of the reasons behind this is that investors started seeing crypto as the new gold. Digital currencies have proven to be a great portfolio diversification option as there’s no logistics to think about during the pandemic. Just like Bitcoin, other digital currencies have been doing well in the past few months. For example, now’s the right time to find out more about Litecoin predictions and invest in it.
Cruising
The coronavirus pandemic spread to a number of cruise ships. The nature of ships includes crowded semi-enclosed areas which is exactly where the virus spreads with ease. The cruise ship called Diamond Princess got hit extremely hard at the beginning of the pandemic, causing people to cancel their cruise vacations. 700 out of 3,711 on Diamond Princess got the virus and 14 people have died as a result of it. As of May 2020, over 40 cruise ships have had confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 on board. It didn’t take long for most cruise ships to suspend their operations and the entire scenic transportation industry started losing money. The situation may be getting better at the moment, but it doesn’t look like we’ll see cruise ships start operating again anytime soon.
Amusement parks
The amusement park industry is another industry heavily affected by the COVID -19 pandemic. Just like with the scenic transportation industry, it’s the nature of the sector that prevents businesses from operating as usual. Most amusement parks have thousands of visitors sharing the same seats every day and many features include a number of people in confined spaces. Waterparks have also been forced to suspend their operations as having that many people share the same pools could lead to even more infection. Disney’s theme park divisions lost about $1 billion in the second quarter of 2020 while Universal Studios lost about $500 million. Both are expected to lose even more as the pandemic continues.
Sports
Most sports events take place because there are thousands of people willing to pay the ticket just so they could attend the event. Unfortunately, social distancing is a must at the moment, and the sports events as we know them cannot be organized. Most leagues in the world have been temporarily shut down when the virus started and they’ve been resumed over the summer. Unfortunately, for some leagues, the coronavirus pandemic was too much and they were forced to shut down. This happened to XFL which has eventually been bought by a group including Dwayne Johnson. The potential loss of revenue in the NBA due to the pandemic stands at $450 million while the NFL is expected to lose about $100 million for the 2020 season.
Restaurants
Naturally, most people decide to dine at home instead of going to restaurants during the pandemic. Many restaurants have been closed but a large number still offers delivery service. Some restaurants that didn’t offer this feature before were forced to introduce it during the pandemic. According to reports, more than 40 percent of people substituted dining out with food delivery and there has still been enough place for restaurants to operate. Things may not be ideal but restaurants that offer delivery services are doing better than expected under such conditions. However, small local restaurants remain a huge question mark. Most of these restaurants cannot afford to offer delivery and they may end up being closed for quite a while.
The bottom line
There’s no doubt the coronavirus will have an even greater impact on our lives. The eight industries discussed in this post and looking at some rough times and we’ll have to wait and see what happens next.
Authored by guest contributor Emma Sumner who is a business strategist-turned blogger. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Emma is a passionate traveler and yoga aficionado. She is in love with coffee, interior design, books, and good vibes. 🙂