Local Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the Urban Tourism-Related Services: A Perspective of Kochi Heritage City, Kerala

Fazlur Rahman (), Norhazliza abd Halim, Abdul Ahad, Aftab Alam and Kahkashan Noor
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Fazlur Rahman: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
Norhazliza abd Halim: Tourism Planning Research Group, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
Abdul Ahad: Urban Planning and Land Management Group, Institute of Geodesy and Geo-Information (IGG), University of Bonn, Nussle 1, 53115 Bonn, Germany
Aftab Alam: Faculty of Architecture & Ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi 110025, India
Kahkashan Noor: Faculty of Architecture & Ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi 110025, India

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has had extremely distressful consequences for the service-providing industries, especially in the sector of tourism. The world is showing a move towards the recovery stage; however, the process has observed a lag in recovery because of a gap in the literature on measuring the local economic impact of COVID-19 on the employability of urban tourism. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the economic impact of COVID-19 on the local market and other tourism-related services in Kochi Heritage City, Kerala. Quantitative research was performed based on stratified sampling with a questionnaire survey among 398 respondents. Data were analyzed descriptively to evaluate the impact and measure the significant difference statistically through a one-sample t -test and a one-way ANOVA. Findings revealed that employability from tourism-related services has observed an adverse impact of COVID-19 by a dip in the local economy in terms of earning reduction, whereas the impact on jobs and reduction in working hours were lopsided. Hence, in identifying the effect of COVID-19 on urban tourism and its sub-scaled classes, it contributes more effectively by intervening with recovery and supporting the local economy through a balanced allocation of financial assistance to the economic dip in Kochi.

Keywords: urban-tourism; COVID-19; local economic impact; Kochi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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