SPILL OVER OF NOVEL COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON PUNJAB TOURISM

The paper purposes to describe the spread of Covid-19 in Punjab, pre Covid-19 period, its effects on Punjab Tourism, and also put forwards a set of recovery measures for tourism sector. The data used is secondary in nature, collected from news broadcasted by several media outlets, various journals, newspapers, articles and official website of Punjab Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, WHO. The study investigated that the outbreak of the global pandemic Covid-19 (Corona Virus Disease -2019) pandemic is an unprecedented shock to the state’s tourism industry. The Punjab Tour ism was in a prospering state before Covid-19 struck. With the prolonged country-wide lockdown, global economic downturn and associated disruption of movement of tourists, the Punjab tourism industry is facing an extended period of decline. The study indicates the effects of Covid-19 in Punjab Tourism and also extends the preventive measures to tackle the pandemic. Although, the length of the impact will depend upon the duration and gravity of the health crisis, the duration of the lockdown and the manner in which the situation unfolds once the lockdown is lifted yet the situation can be tackled by adopting the suggestive recovery measures.


INTRODUCTION: COVID-19
The world has experienced a number of major epidemics/pandemics in the last 40 years, yet none had similar implications for the global economy as the COVID-19 pandemic. The spread was started in December 2019; Chinese health authorities closely monitored a cluster of pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan. The pathogen causing the viral pneumonia among affected individuals is the new 'Coronavirus'. Concerning public health globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak a health emergency on 30 January 2020 and documented it as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
The virus is mainly spreading between persons through close contact, often via minor droplets produced by sneezing, handshaking, talking or coughing. While these droplets are producing when breathing out, they ordinarily drop to the ground or onto clean surfaces rather than stay in the air over long distances. Individuals may also become infected by touching the unclean surfaces and then touching their nose, mouth, or eyes. The life of a virus it can live on surfaces for up to 72 hours or more.
Although many laboratories and researchers are working yet currently there are no specific vaccines, medicines or treatments for COVID-19 are available. Internationally, there are more than 59.8 million additional cases detected and confirmed 1.41 million deaths in the world. Taking a positive side, 38.3 million persons have recovered from the novel disease.

Punjab Tourism
Punjab, known as the rich state of the country also has tourism as a cardinal sector in economic development. Punjab known as a land of five rivers Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum, has its roots in religion, culture and rich heritage.
So, it has been an important tourist destination from yester years. Punjab famously referred to as 'The land of five rivers', is situated in the north western part of India. From mud work, wood work, basketry work, weaving and embroidery work on Phulkari, Punjab is also famous worldwide for its mouthwatering cuisines. Punjab is a land of farmers and villages.
Visiting Punjab and staying in its villages is a gateway to the peaceful and cultural heritage land of India. The scenic landscape, rich history and famous religious sites are the most important reasons for increasing number of visits by tourists. The art and craft of Punjab is very famous worldwide.
The artwork is basically performed by the women of Punjab.The diversity of Punjab is encapsulated in its villages and the way people live life in villages. The scenic landscape, rich history and famous religious sites are the most important reasons for increasing number of visits by tourists. People visit Punjab for fairs and festivals, forts, palaces and museums, war memorial, shrines. (www.punjabtourism.gov.in)

Misson Fateh
Mission Fateh is an endeavor taken by Honorable Chief Minister of Punjab Capt. Amarinder Singh in order to motivate and encourage people of Punjab to defeat the distress situation caused by novel COVID-19. It is a mission "of the people, by the people and for the people". It symbolizes the resolve of the people of Punjab to halt the spread of Novel Coronavirus through Discipline, Cooperation and Compassion….Discipline in observing all precautions, Cooperation with the State Government by faithfully abiding by the lockdown restrictions and Compassion towards the poor by helping them and giving them aid. It is the true reflection of the Punjabi spirit that can overcome all odds to emerge victorious. Chinazzi et al., (2020), investigated that Chinese used a worldwide meta populace illness transmission model to extend the effect of movement constraints on the national and universal spread of the pandemic. It supported 90% travel limitations to and from Mainland China just humbly influences the pandemic direction except if joined with a half or higher decrease of transmission in the network.

LITERATURE REVIEW
As stated by Chang et al., (2020), the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease is highly infectious and contagious and has changed the world forever in every imaginable respect and has impacted heavily on the international travel, tourism demand, and hospitality industry, which is one of the world's largest employers and is highly sensitive to such pandemic.
According to Dev and Sengupta (2020), with the prolonged country-wide lockdown, global economic downturn and associated disruption of demand and supply chains, the economy is likely to face a protracted period of slowdown. The research depicts the condition of the Indian economy in the pre-Covid-19 period, evaluate the likely effect of the stun on different portions of the economy, break down the arrangements that have been reported so far by the focal government and the Reserve Bank of India to enhance the monetary stun and set forward a lot of strategy proposals for explicit parts. Gössling et al., (2020), investigates the impacts of COVID-19 to previous epidemic/pandemics and other types of global crises and explores how the pandemic may change society, the economy, and tourism. It is an analogue to the ongoing climate crisis, and emphasizes a need to monitor the volume growth tourism model advocated by global tourism organizations. Gajjar and Parmar (2020), examined that Event management including MICE and the travel industry is to a great extent connected with business travel and is quickly extending all over in India, which was relied upon to cross Rs. 10000 crore by 2021. Which got gigantic obstacle and according to the Leading Association and experts it is relied upon to take Rs. 1 Lakh trillion hit. Furthermore, in words of Kasare (2020), revealed that due to the flare-up of COVID-19 results into colossal misfortune to numerous divisions including Tourism, it is discovered that this will results into the gigantic misfortune to nations GDP and to recuperate this misfortunes, appropriate cures ought to be taken by Government so that in future these sort of unanticipated circumstance can handled down.
Ozili and Arun, (2020) revealed that the expanding number of lockdown days, money and economy related strategy choices and global travel limitations seriously influenced the degree of monetary exercises and the end, opening, most minimal and most elevated stock cost of significant securities exchange records. Conversely, the forced limitation on inside development and higher financial strategy spending positively affected the degree of monetary exercises, in spite of the fact that the expanding number of affirmed coronavirus cases didn't significantly affect the degree of financial exercises.

Significance of the study
Many individuals and communities are influenced by COVID-19 from different states all the way. The Punjab State Government has taken a choice of complete lockdown at state level. This alternative of government has influenced all the segments of the economy and among which Tourism division is one of the most influenced segment. In this manner to comprehend at what degree it has influenced the tourism in Punjab, the issue is being chosen for the exploration.

Objectives
1. To know the spread of COVID-19 in Punjab. 2. To know the number of tourist arrivals in Punjab pre COVID-19 period. 3. To know the spillover of COVID-19 on Punjab Tourism. 4. To provide recovery measures to combat the situation.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The main objective of this paper is to outline the impact of COVID-19 on Punjab Tourism. In compliance with the nature of the study, the most appropriate approach of data collection is the secondary resource. Moreover, primary data is also collected through telephonic interviews. The information thus collected for the research work is through synthesis of news broadcasted by several media outlets, various journals, newspapers, articles and official website of Punjab Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, WHO.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
As of till date, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has confirmed a total of 147,655 cases, including 4,653 deaths and 136,178 recoveries in Punjab. The district wise spread of Covid-19 is as follows:

▪ Closure of dining and entertainment places:
The curfew and lockdown situation in Punjab leads to the closure of the hotels, restaurants and religious places. There is also a closure of places for entertainment such as movie and play theatres, sports clubs, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and so on.
▪ Stuck tourists at other places: As of COVID-19, due to ban on travel, different tourist from Punjab and other states and countries are still in the stuck down position. Likewise tourist willing to come back home in Punjab are stuck in abroad and other states and vice versa. There are quarantine restrictions on people who have entered boundaries of Punjab from other places. They are being quarantined in certain hospitals, stadiums, gurudwaras for minimum fifteen days. Due to isolation and lack of basic facilities in isolation / quarantine centers it has caused distress among them.
▪ Financial Loss: From travel to flying and hospitality industry in Punjab, the tourism industry has incurred enormous damages and is the primary industry to get affected. For this information, the primary data was collected through telephonic interviews from the tourism service providers such as the hotels and travel intermediaries on income and employment, retrenchment, payment of salary etc. during the lock-down period. The state government tourism employees were also surveyed on assessing various losses. Due to travel ban, the industries such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) business is impacted in the short term, since due to the lockdown, performances of companies is affected and they are not in position to invest immediately in MICE trips. Overall Indian travel industry and accommodation division, which is severely hit by COVID-19, is gazing at a potential activity loss of around 38 million, which is around 70% of the all out workforce. According to Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH), the emergency has prompt 38 million individuals related with the segment losing their job positions. In April alone, Punjab lost 88 per cent of state's estimated revenue due to the lockdown. As per quick estimates, state is losing Rs 3,000 crore a month and is looking at Rs 50,000 crore minimum in losses for the full year (https://www.ndtv.com).

Recovery Measures to Combat the Situation
Emerging from the study findings, the following recovery measures are suggested: ▪ Safety is one of the most important factors when one plans to travel. So, the thermal screening at entrances to let only asymptomatic people enter the premises. people have intentions to use own vehicle or flight for a trip instead of using public transport such as railway train or state run bus or even a private operator bus and it can be due to concerns with safety measures i.e. hygiene and proper social distancing as well as adherence to other norms for a safe trip. Faisal & Dhusia (2021).
▪ Suggested defensive measures including hand washing, covering mouth when coughing, maintaining social distance from other people and monitoring and self-isolation for people who doubtful they are infected. Distinct authorities have implemented travel quarantines, workplace hazard controls, restrictions, curfews, and stay-athome orders, and facility closures, sanitizing places.
▪ As per the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) issued by the central government, it mandates 65 plus senior citizens, pregnant women and kids below 10 years to remain home and not to be made a part of travelling.
▪ Online payments /use of plastic money should be encouraged.
▪ Tourists visiting the shrines should not be allowed Parsad distribution, sprinkling of water and touching of idols. There should be no serving of langar for tourists at places of worship. Devotees should also be advised to leave their footwear in the cars and to bring their own mats for prayers. The timing restrictions and maximum limit of tourists visiting the shrine is the need of the hour.
▪ Social distancing needs to be ensured with six feet physical distance between people at all the times along with face masks, hand and respiratory hygiene needs to be maintained.
▪ The Punjab Government has also mandated COVA App on tourist's cell phones visiting malls and other places.
▪ As per MHA (Ministry of Home affairs), tourists dining at restaurants only 50% seating at a time should be permitted. The hotel and restaurant owners need to be encouraged to 'take away' rather than dinning in, delivery persons must leave food packets at the doorstep rather than handing food stuff directly. Time restrictions should be there.
▪ The entry of tourist in shopping malls should be on token system so as to regulate the number of visitors. Tourists while visiting a shopping mall, only shopping areas should be opened. Trail of clothing and accessories should not be permitted. The gaming arcades, children's play areas and cinemas should be closed.
▪ More strategic actions, such as improving quality, forming new partnerships and adjusting marketing and product offering became more important as the crisis dragged on. In the early days of the crisis some operators reduced their marketing spending as income fell, but over the following months marketing budgets tended to increase in the search for new customers. Richards & Morrill (2020).

CONCLUSION
The disastrous pandemic has produced severe global socioeconomic disturbance, including one of the biggest global recessions in history. The tourism industry is an umbrella industry networked with many other sectors in the economy including hotel, community level operations, education, financial, agriculture, medical, travel and transportation, construction, real estate and retail.
Tourism is a reason for most of the human mobility in the modern world. The travel restrictions imposed by Punjab government subsequently led to the reduction in the demand for all forms of travel. The impact is also seen on the sales as well as the current achievements.
With the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to adapt appropriate cures ought to be taken by Government so that in future these sort of unanticipated circumstance can be handled down.