BANGKOK, 26 September 2003 — The SARS crisis cost Asian economies over seven million jobs and slashed at least $30 billion off growth estimates this year but effects on the worst-hit countries should be short-lived, a travel association said yesterday.
Asia’s tourism and travel industry was ravaged by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which prompted a plunge in travel in the region earlier this year, dampening the economies.
“The spin-off effects were horrendous,” Peter de Jong, president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), said in a speech, citing statistics that China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam will lose almost three million front-line tourism industry jobs.
“And if we factor in the indirect component, that figure more than doubles to seven million jobs lost in those four destinations alone,” de Jong told a three-day global tourism conference here.
“That shaves close to $30 billion off the combined GDP estimates for those destinations this year.” Indirect job losses brought on by SARS were widespread in service industries and hit everyone from restaurant staff to drinking water suppliers and air conditioner producers, according to PATA, the recognized authority on Pacific Asia travel and tourism.
SARS infected more than 8,000 people and left more than 900 dead in 32 countries, with 349 of the fatalities recorded in China.
In May, the World Travel and Tourism Council reported that 25 percent of China’s tourism industry earnings would be lost, along with a total of 2.8 million industry jobs, or one-fifth of the country’s total industry employment.
Airlines were devastated by the crisis, which saw the World Health Organization and governments around the world issue a raft of travel advisories to affected areas.
Load levels on Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific collapsed from one million per month to just over 200,000 in May, and the company teetered on the edge of bankruptcy before recovering to 90 percent levels in August.
He stressed, however, that Asia’s resilient tourism industry was already bouncing back and reaching performance levels similar to last year’s.
“More recent data indicates that the bottom has been reached,” he said.
“The travel and tourism industry in the Asia Pacific region is recovering. The numbers tell us that.” Updated forecasts for the destinations hit hardest by the SARS pandemonium indicate that the consequences will be relatively short-lived.
“Most flows will have returned to normal by the end of this year,” de Jong said.
“All in all we expect a return to aggregate annual growth rates of around 4.0 to 6.0 percent during 2004.”
