The 'New' Normal

Since the beginning of 2020, the world has been striving to survive its long term battle against the Corona virus aka COVID-19, locking down cities and countries has proved to be testing times for mankind. It has put many of us in dilemma on the sort of compromise and the kind of adjustments we might have to continue after a pandemic.

It is scary to imagine a world on the other side, but inevitable as well. Here are few of the industries that will never be the same again…. Travel & Tourism

With COVID-19 being a pandemic, the tourism industry has taken a brutal blow to its revenues. Globally in 2019 with around 250 billion U.S Dollars in India alone. A large share of the labor force employed in T&T will be out of work. Global and local markets have collapsed so has the “forex” foreign exchange industry too.

Once upon a time most popular tourist destinations like Europe, China, the USA, South East Asia, and even the Middle East were a hub of overcrowding due to over-tourism. These have now become spots of threats being severely affected by COVID. The busy airports with thousands of people are now deserted masked travelers and empty luggage belts. Tourist places are suffering heavy loss due to high maintenance cost and no revenue. With that being said, a chain of other businesses such as hotels, restaurants, food, event organizers, and also transportation have faced the blow. As we recover from months of social distancing and when most of the business gets back to normal, it won’t be ‘business as usual ‘ for travel for sure. It is going to be a huge task to convince people for foreign travel as vacations may now be more domestic. Travel and tourism need to be reinvented, keeping in mind the balance between nature and mankind.

Retail & E-Commerce

The retail field consists of supermarkets, department stores, chain stores for groceries, fashion, accessories, electronics, home decor and many more! With the announcement of lock down all shopping malls, markets, complex have all come to a standstill.

While shops with essentials goods are still permitted to continue sales, there is a huge drop in footfall public places. The shopping mall landlords have been hit hard because many tenants have been forced to shut their store. Shopping which was once considered an activity of leisure, has now become an essential activity.

As people have embraced social distancing and with shops being closed, people across the globe have been forced to turn towards online groceries for their essential supply. Online shopping has become a boon in these pandemic conditions. It is said that the retail sector would take 9-12 months to recover from the impact of the Covid-19.

Sports & Entertainment

The COVID has seemed to send a big shock wave, especially to the most-awaited Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Postponing the games seemed inevitable as infection rates continued to grow rapidly globally. Not Just athletes but even in this season of sporting, professional leagues everywhere have suspended their activities to limit the spread of the virus. In the absence of live games, sports channels are also suffering heavy losses.

Entertainment venues such as cinema, music, theater, clubs, conferencing, exhibitions events are choking the lifeline of the industry. Amusement theme parks such as Universal Studios, Disney Land are all shut down as large gatherings may increase the spread of COVID. TV Audience has skyrocketed with is causing channels to run out of new programs, as no shows have been made during the lockdown. With social distancing along with restrictions on group gathering, the filming of movies ,shows and reality TV have all taken hit to their revenues. Will many of the most awaited movies have postponed their release to the end of the year or even 2021 ,To keep people entertained, OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Disney + Hotstar and Netflix are encouraging producers and directors to release films on on their digital platform .

It's not just these but other sectors such as hospitality, agriculture, transportation, healthcare have also been deeply impacted. No one knows what the other side of the Post COVID era looks like. All we can hope is to wait with patience, practice social distancing, and hope that in months to come we can expect some sort of normalcy ...or perhaps this is our new normal world.

(All Image Courtesy : Unsplash,Pexels)

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