Specialists in youth and student travel are hoping the sector will be one of the ones to bounce back quickly once the world begins to recover from COVID-19.
Drawing on its experiences of the financial crisis in 2008-09, the World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation (WYSE) points to characteristics of the sector such as longer stays, higher - as well as local - spend that helped it rebound in the past.
In its latest analysis of the business impact of COVID-19, WYSE says that although every crisis is different, long-term youth and student travel was less impacted by the financial crash than international tourism.
It says that the decline in core business volume was 0.3% in 2009, compared to UNWTO figures that indicated tourism was down 4% overall.
Most businesses in the youth travel sector saw a 2.4% decline in business volumes for the first quarter of 2009 compared with the final quarter of 2008.
Youth travel accommodation as well as retailers and tour operators were said to be the most impacted.
Figures for the first quarter of 2009 versus the final quarter of 2008 revealed sales of student or youth travel services were down 5.8%, tour adventure and group travel down 4.5% and youth travel accommodation down 6.5%.
WYSE adds that towards the end of 2009, its Youth Travel Industry Monitor forecast the industry expected a return to growth in the first two months of 2010, with about a third anticipating growth of between 5% and 9%.
In an earlier analysis, WYSE revealed that the top actions taken to reduce the impact of the virus include modifying cancellation policies, cutting prices and cutting capacity.
Back in late-2008, initial actions involved increased marketing and cutting costs and staff and reducing prices.
However, by the end of 2009 the industry was seeking ways to improve quality, find new opportunities and forge new partnerships.
Overall the sector is anticipating an €87 billion revenue loss in 2020 as a result of coronavirus.