About 55 percent of all small U.S. travel-related businesses will either need more than six months to recover from the economic shutdown or will never be able to recover at all, the U.S. Travel Association has warned.
Lodging and food service businesses employed one in ten Americans before the pandemic, with 95 percent of those workers employed by small businesses.
In contrast, small and medium-size businesses employ only 28 percent of U.S. manufacturing workers.
More than half of all U.S. travel-related jobs vanished from February through April. The travel industry’s shutdown is projected to cost the U.S. economy $1.2 trillion this year.
Before the pandemic, travel was a “top 10” employer in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
TREND FORECAST: Travel-related businesses will only rebound when politicians and the media declare “Mission Accomplished” – the COVID War is over.
Which direction it will go will become evident as autumn and winter set in and how the “second wave” is sold to the public.
It should be noted that restaurants in major cities, many of which are dependent on the travel, tourism, arts, and entertainment sectors are, and will be, hard hit. In New York City, for example, 87 percent of restaurants could not afford to fully pay their rent and 34 percent could not pay their rent at all according to the NYC Hospitality Alliance.
