The Irish government released a report that made the full impact of COVID-19 on the country’s economy clear. It also addresses some challenges that the country will still have to face. The Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation published a report 16 ‘Focus on Sectors 2020’ emphasizing the difficulties the transport, retail, agriculture and food, tourism and many other industries will face. None of the European Union Countries’ aviation has suffered as much as that of Ireland’s. As the European Union members eased the restrictions on the travel for some countries the air travel started slowly recovering. But the damage has been so great that it might keep affecting the industry into next year. The report says that every chain of the aviation industry except for the cargo operations saw severe economic damage. The year 2020 does not show much prospect when it comes to the recovery of aviation because it is linked to the tourism industry. Tourism itself is struggling and is highly unlikely to see any major improvements in 2020. Maritime Travel has also seen an unprecedented decline of 95 %.
Every country has suffered a great deal. The economies are devastated across the globe. However, the countries that have a stronger digital economy have higher hopes of recovery. Countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, countries that have been creating thriving ecosystems for technological enterprise managed to keep more jobs. The digital industries, including computing, cryptocurrencies, social media, iGaming, and video gaming, made an easier transition to the stay-at-home work option, thus managing to keep their employees.
Many digital businesses such as social media, online retail, and iGaming saw a rise in the number of their users. iGaming platforms became increasingly popular over the last decade. The reason iGaming is so popular is that besides the traditional gaming forms. Currently international gamers can play roulette online, poker and slots at the same platform. Playing those games on the same platforms gives freedom to iGaming brands and users stay more to enjoy their luck with the same brand. The iGaming industry in many countries has been a successful example of growth. Digitalization is very important and covid pandemic has shown thousands of businesses. Another reason why iGaming brands are successful is that the industry quickly adapts to technological innovations. iGaming was one of the first ones to allow cryptocurrency payments. Digital currency adaptation meant that the users could easily execute the money transfers. The traditional money operations that take days could be avoided and the users were enabled to save precious time. Along with iGaming, the e-commerce space has seen a massive rise during the covid pandemic. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon was first to grow heavily in mid of 2020.
The Ireland’s agri-food and beverage industry analysis says that the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions caused a drop in demand for Irish products from outside the countries. While the food consumption in the country grew it was not enough to balance the collapsed international demand. The process led to the surplus of the products in Ireland and therefore the farmers were paid less than usual. The revenue for the agriculture, food, and beverage industry of Ireland will drop from EUR 0.7 billion to EUR 1.6 billion. The beef market will probably see the worst decline. The revenue of the tourism industry will probably fall by around EUR 5 billion. 190,000 to 200,000 people might lose their jobs in the tourism and hospitality industry. The entertainment centers such as restaurants, pubs, clubs, theatres, and movies were closed down. This caused not only the decline of entertainment and hospitality but also in real estate. More and more places occupied by small businesses that were forced to close down are now empty.
