struggles

Travel industry struggles to rebound from COVID-19

By 5 months ago

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson described the sudden loss of hotel guests as “breathtaking in its decline.” Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said the plunge in ticket bookings had a “9/11-like feel.” Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Richard Fain called the shutdown of his industry a “weird, unworldly” time.

Travel industry leaders spared no superlative in March when describing the instant devastation from the unfolding coronavirus crisis.

Yet six months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, the toll from COVID-19 turned out to be even worse for the industry in most cases, the projected timeline for a travel rebound and recovery extended again and again as case counts remain high, travel restrictions abound and business travel shows few signs of life.

U.S. airlines that had been confident $25 billion in government payroll aid would be the bridge they needed to keep workers employed until travel rebounded are less than

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Northeast travel restrictions add to small business owners’ struggles

By 7 months ago

Every year, more than 20 million visitors flock to Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which, after being closed for several months, reopened July 1.

But for the first time in its nearly 300-year history, it’s largely empty.

“There is no foot traffic,” business owner Sara Youngelson told ABC News. “It is so far and few between, it’s just been really, really tough.”

For Youngelson, who owns five businesses in the Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market area, the past five months have been some of the most difficult of her 30-year career as a merchant in the historic marketplace

Many merchants and shop owners across the Northeast were optimistic that reopening later in the summer could help offset economic damage caused by the pandemic, but with newly instated state travel restrictions affecting tourism, many are no longer as hopeful.

PHOTO: Visitors walk outside Faneuil Hall Marketplace, one of Boston’s most popular

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