Travel and its Role in the Spread of a Pandemic: Developing a Preventive Framework for Regional Tourist Destinations on the Basis of the Corona Experience of Kerala.

Abstract

Pandemics occurred at different points of time in the millennia old history of human beings and in most of the cases, travel has been identified as a principal cause of the spread of infections across borders. Of late, tourism, as it stimulates travel phenomenally, too has a considerable share in the rapid spread of diseases, particularly the airborne ones. Since pandemics consequently result in crises of diverse magnitudes, tourist destinations too face harsh repercussions. The on-going global corona pandemic has already shattered the scope and hope of tourism sector, at least temporarily, and tourist destinations, along with fighting for saving the lives of people, are struggling to cope up with the surging consequences of it. Sharp escalation, in spite of imposing travel restrictions, of the spread of the disease into destinations in a short span of time demands a comprehensive strategic action framework for controlling the spread and to save the people and the destination. Therefore, an attempt has been done to examine the role of travel in the spread of communicable diseases in the history and in the current Corona crisis by citing the case of Kerala; and to formulate a strategic framework with the help of a Delphi study for preventing the spread of epidemics/pandemics through travellers into the regional tourist destinations, along with protecting the tourism industry. The outcome of the study reiterates the intricate role of travel in the spread of pandemics, including the corona, and the theoretical preventive strategic framework formulated would provide a base for regional tourist destinations to control the pandemics as and when they arise.