The Dynamic Disruptor: A Challenge to the Scales of Travel and Hospitality Industry and Tourism in Light of Covid-19 and its Aftereffect with Emphasis on the Indian Sector

Since the inception of mankind, a common thread that has bound the human species was migration, which was seen as a means of moving, interacting, and organizing as a group and even as a primitive people for a variety of purposes ranging from a sense of security to hunting and eating together. Over the period as primitive cultures paved the way to civilizations and social interactions, one inherent quality which survived through eons of evolution is this sense of migration, whether it be for business, or pleasure, commonly referred to as 'traveling' or the act of travel. Humans travel as a social act both for personal gratification as well as for professional prospects. And with a world population of 7.95 billion (approximately), this act of travel fuels a global tourism and travel market valued at US$ 10.5 Trillion. However, the world came to a startling halt in 2020 as the pandemic struck. The human population worldwide was introduced to an alien concept of confinement imposed as a mandate by the state, referred to as ‘lockdown’. This brought about a cessation of human activities, chief among which was travel and social interaction. The subsequent years i.e., 2021 and 2022, saw repetitive waves of covid with both global and localized strains leading to lockdowns on a global and local scale respectively. These subsequent waves left every industry scarred to deal with the aftermath. The travel and hospitality industry was not an exception to this global force of disruption as well. The purpose of this study is to investigate the socio-legal implications of decreased or altered human movement brought on by the pandemic and its impact on the travel and hospitality sectors with special emphasis on the Indian sector and a global outlook. The study's conclusions detail the enormous loss the sector endured as a result of the pandemic, as well as the new trends that arose in 2021 and 2022 to help the business recover from its losses. It is further aimed at finding fail-safe mechanisms as a form of check and balance to keep the industry afloat, in the case of such an unforeseeable disaster, in the prospect.