The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

person when social isolation has ended. Of course, some hearings must be determined in person, but many more need not be heard in this way. Others have noted the environmental benefits brought by international lockdown and social distancing. Eliminating unnecessary travel to and from the court could be a small, but important, benefit that could outlive the return to normal life. Notwithstanding this significant benefit to the court service, the economic consequences of lockdown will, of course, be extraordinarily grave. It is now accepted that some businesses will not survive the measures taken to contain the pandemic and that the travel industry, in particular, will contract significantly. In some ways, this has been inevitable for some time; for environmental reasons, if for no other reasons, the air transport and cruise industry has been at risk for decades. A period of painful consolidation will surely follow the cancellation of all but essential international and domestic travel and, as a consequence, those industries and professions parasitic on the travel industry will also undergo a painful constriction, including the author’s own profession. Whatever the difficulties, however, there can be no doubt but that the travel and tourism industry will flourish again. In the words of St Augustine, “the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page”.