Read the passage carefully and answer the question given below:
The development of MICE industry (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) contributes to economic diversification, stimulates the rational use of cultural and natural-recreational resources, and enables a balanced growth of the whole tourism sector. For the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the tourism sector is especially important as a driver of national gross domestic product (GDP). As stated by the Dubai Annual Visitor Report 2019, at the end of 2019, tourism was responsible for contributing an impressive 11.5 per cent in GDP value. Furthermore, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Cities Report, Dubai’s tourism sector was ranked one of ‘Top 10’ strongest economic share generators.
More than 2.3 million visitors cited business as their main purpose of travel to Dubai in 2019, marking a two per cent increase compared to 2018. In the year 2019, Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) welcomed its record 3.57 million delegates, which declared the visitation growth of up to four per cent from the previous year. Such an increase was driven by 349 MICE and business events, 97 of which were large scale with over 2000 attendees. Since 2019, international participation in DWTC events grew by 15 per cent (equivalent to 1.2 million visitors), underlining the strong benefits the world businesses see in coming to Dubai with the aim of sharing knowledge, networking and accelerating their development. Last year, the business tourism events accounted for 3.3% of GDP, which amounts to USD 3.57 billion. The business tourism was a key element in stimulating the national economic growth and in the nearest future was supposed to reach intense development, making the UAE among the central players in the global MICE industry. However, the introduced quarantine ruined these plans.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to more than 4.3 million confirmed cases and more than 290,000 deaths worldwide. It raised fears of an impending economic crisis and recession. Social distancing, self-isolation, and travel restrictions have reduced the workforce in all sectors of the economy and have led to the loss of many jobs. Due to the lack of a vaccine and very limited treatment options, non-pharmaceutical interventions occurred to be the primary strategy to contain the pandemic. Unprecedented global travel restrictions and appeals to stay at home have caused the most critical disruptions of the global economy since World War II. Given the international travel bans that affect more than 90% of the global population and widespread restrictions on public gatherings and community mobility, tourism largely ceased in March 2020. Since the quarantine introduction, millions of jobs in the global tourism sector were lost due to flight, event and hotel cancellations.
Given that international arrivals exceeded 1.5 billion for the first time only in 2019, the long-term evolution of tourism is proved to be greatly dependent on a decade of growth since the global financial crisis. Though, this last period of unhindered business tourism development has suddenly come to an end with the COVID-19.
Accompanied by quarantine in most countries and closed borders worldwide, COVID-19 pandemic heavily hit the MICE industry. The majority of domestic and international airlines were forced to cancel their flights due________________________, as people were frightened. The MICE industry was undermined by government efforts to contain and combat the pandemic. Borders were closed, trips banned, social and business events cancelled, and people were ordered to stay in their homes. By taking these actions, governments around the world sought to strike a balance between maintaining their economies and preventing dangerous levels of unemployment and deprivation.
Which of the following phrases best fills the blank in the passage?

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**Solution:**

1. The passage discusses the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the MICE industry and tourism sector.

2. It mentions that due to quarantine and travel restrictions, many flights were canceled.

3. The blank requires a phrase explaining why airlines canceled flights.

4. Option (a) "To enforce severe quarantine measures and a lack of passengers" fits perfectly as it explains the cause of flight cancellations due to strict quarantine and reduced passenger numbers.

5. Other options do not logically fit the context of the sentence or the passage's focus on the pandemic's immediate impact.

**Answer:** To enforce severe quarantine measures and a lack of passengers.

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