Global Journal of Management and Business Research, F: Real Estate, Event and Tourism Management, Volume 22 Issue 3

restrictions and stay-at-home orders resulted in a dramatic drop in hotel occupancy and revenue. However, the reopening process has begun gradually, and authorities have begun to reduce restrictions, such as allowing dine-in restaurants to reopen at a reduced capacity while adhering to strict social distancing guidelines, and gradually removing restrictions on domestic and foreign travel (Gursoy & Chi, 2020). The tourism and hospitality industry thrives on tourist trends, and policy makers make significant efforts to attract tourists in order to sustain the industry and increase the multiplier impact. However, due to the current situation, national and international travel restrictions remain in place. These travel bans, border closures, events cancellations, quarantine requirements and fear of spread; have placed extreme challenges on tourism and hospitality sectors of every country. Like other countries, tourism and hospitality industry of Bangladesh and India is going to look more shocking situation due to COVID-19 outbreak (Gössling, Scott, & Hall, 2020; Kaushal & Srivastava, 2021). On this note, this research is an endeavor to explore the overall impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality sector of the selected south Asian countries like Bangladesh and India. c) Purpose of the Study Tourism and hospitality is the most flourishing sector of any country that not only generates economic growth but also creates more employment opportunities and also opens up socio-economic and cultural development. We are living in the age of globalization which has benefited the global economy, foreign trade, and most significantly the tourism and hospitality industry. But unfortunately, COVID-19 pandemic eventually blocked the globalization process as well as paralyzes all potential ways of development where tourism and hospitality sector is the worst victim. Since the beginning of 2020, the whole world has been stopped due to this pandemic. Traveling from one country to another is strictly forbidden for national safety reasons. For this reason, almost all of the countries of the world are shut down and every domestic and international flight has been cancelled. Moreover, there is also restriction over the public transport around the country. So the result of this cancellation is directly impacting the tourism and hospitality sectors across the world. We observed that almost all of the hotels, motels and resorts are totally vacant in Bangladesh, and India. As Bangladesh and India became one of the worst victims of this situation, this present study aims to measure the overall effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality sector of these two particular countries. d) Objectives of the Study i. General Objective The main objective of this study is to explore the overall impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism and hospitality industry of Bangladesh and India. ii. Specific Objectives To reach out the major objective, some specific objectives are framed as follows – • To find out the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism sector of Bangladesh and India. • To explain the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hotel sector of Bangladesh and India. • To chalk out the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on employment sector under tourism and hospitality in Bangladesh and India. • To identify the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on aviation industry of Bangladesh and India. • To suggest some strategies and measures that will assist and overcome the problems in tourism and hospitality sectors. e) Research Questions The research questions, derived and backed-up from a preliminary literature review, as well as in coherence with the research model of this study, are listed as follows:  How does COVID-19 pandemic affect the tourism and hospitality industry of Bangladesh and India?  How does COVID-19 pandemic affect the employment sector of tourism and hospitality industry in Bangladesh and India?  How does COVID-19 pandemic affect the travel and aviation sector of Bangladesh and India?  What are the recovering strategies to reduce the damage done by COVID-19 pandemic in the tourism and hospitality industry of Bangladesh and India? f) Major Contributions of the Study The main objective of this study is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the tourism and hospitality industry of Bangladesh and India. Particularly, the research focuses on Bangladesh and India and determines the challenges they faced in tourism and hospitality sector. Moreover, this study also indicated the strategies to overcome those challenges in the short- and long-term while minimizing the global economic shocks due to the pandemic. Besides, the present study also concentrates of the impact of COVID- 19 on the other main sub-services supporting tourism and hospitality sector like hotels, air travel, transport, and people related to this particular industry. So it is important for a country to protect people and maintain a healthy tourism industry. The governments should make strategies to protect the employees and staffs in the tourism and hospitality industry. Moreover, governments Assessment of the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Tourism and Hospitality Sector: Evidence from the South Asian Countries 2 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue III Version I Year 2022 ( ) F © 2022 Global Journals