Till last year March when the country imposed a nationwide lockdown and subsequently further state-level restrictions till today, the most affected sector in this coronavirus pandemic is the tourism sector. In this sector, the people who are struggling financially a lot are the tourist guides who familiarise international travelers to the beautiful destinations of the country.
As the lockdown was started last year, tourist guides were unable to get proper work even when some restrictions were relaxed every now and then last year and this year. This summer, the tourism sector was planning to revive its industry just when cases started rising in March 2021, and the lockdown restrictions were made stricter all over which worsened the situation of many tourist guides all over the country. In general, tourist guides are of the opinion that foreign tourists visiting India are a far dream even if the restrictions related to travel get eased up all over the country with a declining trend in the cases and deaths due to the coronavirus infection.
As international flights were halted to curb the spread of the virus and even many foreign countries banned the flights to India, the work of the tourist guides has been stopped. With savings declining and no fixed source of income, tourist guides are returning back to their hometowns to be a part of their family activities like farming, etc. There are no other job opportunities apart from this as they were dependent on entirely international tourism for making their ends meet.
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Tourism has been the first sector to be worst hit by the pandemic and there has been no sign of recovery even in the unlock phases that happened for a short period since the last year. Many other sectors have tried to recover by introducing new ways of operating their businesses but it has been a big blow for international tourism in the country.
