THE EFFECTS OF THE CORONAVIRUS IN THE WEDDING INDUSTRY

5 Mar

98.000 and growing

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There’s plenty to think about for those getting married this year, or working in the wedding industry. As we move into Spring and the core wedding season, coronavirus continues to spread. Thriving on mass hysteria, the media have the public on high alert, reporting an increasing number of confirmed cases every day. Wedding industry professionals are becoming understandably concerned about the possible effects on their livelihoods. The immediate questions are, what are the real risks, and what can we expect to happen over the course of the year? Is it possible to stay one step ahead?

The coronavirus is believed to have started in China in the Wuhan Region, where over 98.000 people have been infected to beginning of March 2020, with over 3300 deaths[1]. Many industries, weddings included, are heavily dependent on Chinese exports – in particular, dresses; factories have been forced to close, halting production and creating a shortage. Catering companies may find ingredients hard to come by as supply chains are disrupted due to exceptionally high demand caused by public stockpiling.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on February 24 that the American public should be prepared for the coronavirus.
One of the worst-hit nations in Europe at present is Italy and in Particular Tuscany, where 107 people have been killed by the virus to date[2], and where cafes and hotels have been forced to close. At home, we could soon see hotels closing, and the question on many couples’ lips will be, will my wedding insurance policy cover the costs, or consider the illness an ‘act of God’? Self-employed suppliers face deciding whether they are obligated to return deposits, making it even harder to pay the bills if they became ill themselves, without any statutory sick pay to fall back on.

We face further flight cancellations and even airline closure; UK airline Flybe went into administration this week, citing the impact of coronavirus as a direct factor, and German airline Lufthansa among others has been grounding a large number of their planes. Calls for border closure have grown louder, although experts suggest it is unlikely that such a drastic step would have any benefits beyond temporarily slowing the virus down.

Most of those infected have only suffered from very mild symptoms and recover easily, but for vulnerable people with pre-existing health conditions, the outcome can be far more serious. Particularly for guests who may be elderly, pregnant or bringing young infants, the fears of traveling by plane may be enough to put them off attending, so even if flights continue, cancellations and dropping numbers are to be expected. This is upsetting for couples who long to share one of the most important moments in their lives with family and friends, plus there is the additional worry that suppliers won’t make it or will pull out at short notice.
I personally had 2 cancellations this year regarding the decease but maybe there is hope.
Of course we dont want to minimalise the virus. As we all understand that we dont want to expose our families, babies, elders to a potential danger. We believe that because we can anticipate it it is anyway better to don’t risks and maybe we are right. Between the risk of families having issues, the providers having issues, the material etc… we all have to understand what it can involve and simply not ignore what can happen.
With summertime coming and medical services working on it, we will all be fine for sure, and that is a promise.

SHOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT IT WHILE PLANNING YOUR DESTINATION WEDDING ?

Planning a destination wedding is complicated enough without having to worry about flight cancellations and island-wide quarantines. Couples should check their contracts for cancellation policies. However, for those planning events beyond summer 2020, it’s too soon to know whether postponement will be necessary; in fact, some couples are considering bringing their weddings forward to marry as soon as possible and choosing a venue closer to home. While lots of couples are pre-emptively abandoning their wedding plans, others may consider the risk low enough to proceed. After all, we encounter threats to our health every time we travel – there is no way to know if the stranger sitting in the seat allocated next to ours on the plane, train or bus could pass on an infectious illness, but this is a risk worth taking to jet off to a dream destination. We could see an increase in intimate weddings or last-minute elopements this year, and an overhaul in the government’s protection of workers’ entitlement to an income when unwell.

Those who have been working in the wedding industry for over a decade will remember how the swine flu outbreak had a large impact on the destination wedding industry, particularly in Mexico, taking a while to recover. At present, the only thing that is guaranteed is that weddings will continue and love is here to stay.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51235105

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51743697

Yahoo Website said
”If you have a planner, talk to them regularly as new information is available and check guidance from relevant authorities, including the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO), which continues to monitor the spread of coronavirus. Your top priority should be the safety of you and your guests.
“It’s a moment to be careful and listen to the authorities,” says Giovana Duailibe, founder and CEO of Belief Wedding Creators, an international community for wedding planners. “The situation is real, and we need to be open to changes, and to offer [utmost] customer service to clients who are living abroad.”

“We ask our couples to follow the World Health Organization procedures to protect them against the virus,” says Milan-based wedding planner Sabrina Gambato of Ti Amo Ti Sposo. “And [we ask them] to communicate on a weekly basis with their guests.” Gambato and other planners in the region are monitoring the ongoing circumstances. “I’ve asked my couples not to come to Milan for two weeks in order to see the evolution of the situation,” she says.

In addition, certain countries and respective corporations have enforced travel restrictions. “We haven’t postponed any weddings at the moment,” Gambato notes. “I personally think that giving information to our customers is the best way not to lose their trust. It is in these moments that you can test the professionalism of your planner: see how they face an emergency and how they deal with it.”

TRAVEL ADVISE

The sudden outbreak of coronavirus has hampered the world's economy. The world economy is now experiencing a crucial moment due to the virus outbreak. No industry has not been affected by the bad impacts of coronavirus. The outbreak also affects the wedding industry severely. As most of the bridal dresses come from China, traders have to depend on their timely delivery. If the dresses do not arrive in time, traders have to cancel their orders. So, the bad impacts of Coronaviruses are many.

Before delving into the details, let me tell you something about the Coronavirus.

Coronaviruses cause cold-like indications. It is a large group of viruses’ family that can be found mostly in animals. It is also zoonotic, meaning that it can be transmitted from animals to humans. If you are affected by the virus, you may experience cold or more severe diseases that cannot be cured for the most cases.

It is revealed that from cats and camels, coronaviruses have been transmitted to human bodies. Due to severe acute respiratory syndrome or other health issues, you may even die because no treatment is invented still now. Warm-blooded flying creatures like bats and birds are the ideal host of the Coronaviruses. These creatures fuel Coronavirus evolution and its spreading.

However, customers want their dream bridal dresses in time. But as most of the industries in China are almost closed, traders cannot deliver the dresses to their ideal customers. As a result, their businesses are greatly hampered due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Thus the virus outbreak is now threatening the wedding market also.

Not only that, the factories in China are not being operated in full swing. City lock-down and quarantines are also reasons behind the scene. Due to the shortage of employees, factories are not producing their products entirely. It does not mean that all factories are closed down. They produce their products but not in their full swing. That’s why rush delivery is not continued.

Apart from China, it spreads in more than 85 countries worldwide. In Europe, the most affected country is Italy. Now, it is spreading fast to other continents as well. From Italy, other countries in Europe are affecting quickly. So, shipping products from country to country is delaying due to the outbreak.

Traders across the world are not receiving wedding-related products, including dresses, ornaments, cosmetics, etc. in time. For this, they cannot but cancel their customers’ orders. As a result, the business is declining day by day. The fewer the factories in China run, the fewer products will produce.

However, the threat of Coronavirus affects the world economy more than it should be. Human beings are very conscious about their health and hazards. Due to the outbreak of Coronaviruss, traveling from one country to another has been declined too. If we are aware and take the necessary steps to prevent the outbreak of the virus, we have to follow some health rules strictly.

Lack of wedding dress materials, bridal dress shortage, delayed orders, flight ban, flights cancelled and eventually wedding plans called off. All these are the numerous effects that Coronavirus (Covid-19) is having on the wedding industry business in Europe and unfortunately it is not looking like it is slowing down anytime soon unless something drastic is done.

It is critically affecting the means and livelihood of the entire wedding industry; boutiques, photographers, caterers, hair-dressers, events decorators, musicians and designers.

Those mostly affected however is the wedding dress industry which is now in turmoil over the deadly coronavirus outbreak — because 90 percent of gowns are either made in China or include materials that are. Therefore once the wedding dress is affected, it has completely shut down the entire wedding because if the bride does not get the dress of her choice, she would not be going ahead with the wedding.

This global pandemic which although originally emerged from a densely populated manufacturing and transport hub in central China has since spread to more than 76 countries including Europe.

Italy has been severely affected by coronavirus and is now dubbed Europe’s worst affected country with over 148 confirmed death (February 2020) toll and counting. European countries like France, Germany, UK, Czech Republic etc. have all traced the influx of coronavirus in their country to Italy.

While there are now over 100,000 confirmed cases globally of infected people, public health officials say the spread has been primarily driven through people spending time indoors with those infected with the virus.

Perhaps the reason that the virus spreads among family members is the way people become infected. "The main mode of transmission is respiratory droplets" that can be produced by speaking and coughing. "These droplets then can find their way into the mouths, noses of other people nearby." says Dr. Adam Lauring, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan.

Much of the spread outside China has come from mass gatherings. For example, in the Diamond Princess cruise ship, over 700 passengers and crew members caught the coronavirus while more than 2,000 infections have been linked to a church group in South Korea.

Perhaps the risk of getting coronavirus from mass gatherings could be the number one reason why the wedding industry is critically affected by this outbreak. It could also be due to the fact that the factors that make for a memorable wedding for the couple (bridal dress) is hugely affected by factories and workers close down in China.

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WHAT IS THE CORONA VIRUS?

In Medical and “technic” words, the Coronavirus is a very severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), previously known by the provisional name 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus. It is contagious in humans and is the cause of the ongoing 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak, an epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that has been designated a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO).[8][9]

SARS-CoV-2 has close genetic similarity to bat coronaviruses, from which it likely originated. An intermediate reservoir such as a pangolin is also thought to be involved in its introduction to humans. From a taxonomic perspective SARS-CoV-2 is classified as a strain of the species severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARSr-CoV).[1] To avoid confusion with the disease SARS, the WHO sometimes refers to the virus as "the virus responsible for COVID-19" in public health communications.

Human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been confirmed during the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak. Transmission occurs primarily via respiratory droplets from coughs and sneezes within a range of about 6 feet (1.8 m). Indirect contact via contaminated surfaces is another possible cause of infection. Viral RNA has also been found in stool samples from infected patients.

It is possible that the virus can be infectious even during the incubation period, but this has not been proven, and the World Health Organization (WHO) stated on 1 February 2020 that "transmission from asymptomatic cases is likely not a major driver of transmission" at this time. Thus, most infections in humans are believed to be the result of transmission from subjects exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019.
The first known infections from the virus were discovered in Wuhan, China. The original source of viral transmission to humans remains unclear. However, research into the origin of the 2003 SARS outbreak has resulted in the discovery of many SARS-like bat coronaviruses, most originating in the Rhinolophus genus of horseshoe bats. Two viral nucleic acid sequences found in samples taken from Rhinolophus sinicus show a resemblance of 80% to SARS-CoV-2. A third viral nucleic acid sequence from Rhinolophus affinis collected in Yunnan province has a 96% resemblance to SARS-CoV-2. The WHO considers bats the most likely natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2.