The Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Travel Agencies: Evidence from Turkey
Abstract
The Covid-19 epidemic disease, which emerged in Wuhan, China, brought the tourism movement in the world to a halt. Travel agencies are one of the tourism businesses most affected by this situation in the tourism sector. This research, it is aimed to determine the effects of Covid-19 on travel agencies. For this purpose, a quantitative research method was used and the data were obtained by online questionnaire technique. The data were obtained from travel agency officials (n: 330) using the convenience sampling method. The data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS program and the Maxqda program. As a result of the analysis; It has been revealed that most of the agencies have stopped business and there have been changes in the agency tour programs. It was also found that in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, the vast majority went to reduce costs, and the majority experienced a decrease of 81% or more compared to last year's turnover. Along with these, the solutions offered by travel agencies for this negative trend; It has emerged as granting and credit support and postponing dues payments.