Travel and Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world, with $5.7 trillion in revenue. It is responsible for an estimated 319 million jobs, or roughly one in 10 people working on the planet. And no sector is more at risk from the novel coronavirus.

Several major conferences expected to draw more than 100,000 visitors each were cancelled even if their location had yet to experience an outbreak. Cancelled conferences include the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the leading show for the mobile phone industry, the Geneva Motor Show, Facebook's (FB) F8 conference, and ironically enough, the ITB Berlin, the leading trade show for the travel industry itself. It was expected to draw 160,000 participants starting Wednesday, 4th March 2020, and was cancelled on the 28th Feb, when the buildup had already started on site since 26th Feb. Hotels which were holding reservations (most of them were fully paid for in advance many months ago) are not willing to consider refunds. Airlines continue to charge re-scheduling charges. Banquet services booked refuse to refund. Logistics companies offer no help either for shipments delivered or in-transit.

If you are among one of the millions affected by a cancellation arising out of Coronavirus and have an issue with a hotel/airline/organiser not offering a refund, we urge you to sign this petition so that we may find ways of putting pressure on the hotel industry councils, tourism boards, airlines and affiliated partners to find a way out of this difficult situation, to compensate all who invest into the promise made by events.

At this testing time for the travel industry, let us find a way to narrow our loses. Please do your bit by signing this petition NOW.