What did tourism learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?

What was the main les­son of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, and has the travel & tour­ism industry learned it?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to the travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing emailed writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words. 

Thanks to the 10 respond­ents who shared their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received. 

(Click/touch an item on the Bites menu to go straight to it.)

Chinese travellers’ ‘fundamental lessons’ from COVID-19

Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO, COTRI (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute); Director, Meaningful Tourism Center, Germany

After four dec­ades of undi­luted optim­ism, anxi­ety has arrived in China, the num­ber one glob­al tour­ism source market. 

The glob­al travel & tour­ism industry has an oppor­tun­ity to provide the appro­pri­ate products.

The richest 7% who own more than 90% of all private wealth in China have learned sev­er­al fun­da­ment­al les­sons from COVID-19 that now influ­ence their travel aspir­a­tions and behaviour. 

• Emig­ra­tion. One can be a mil­lion­aire and play golf every week­end with the gov­ernor and still become the vic­tim of lock­downs, with one’s apart­ment door wel­ded shut, facing the risk of star­va­tion. There are no lim­its to what the Chinese gov­ern­ment can do. As a con­sequence, many Chinese high-net-worth indi­vidu­als will still travel, but will not start in Main­land China as they have already emig­rated or will do so in the com­ing months. 
• Dis­cov­ery. Brag­ging rights are no longer earned by stay­ing in the most expens­ive suite at a tour­ism hot­spot and order­ing the most expens­ive wine on the menu. ‘Dis­cov­er­ing’ new des­tin­a­tions, and get­ting value for money based on ser­vices cus­tom­ised to you are the new signs of soph­ist­ic­a­tion, dis­tin­guish­ing the Chinese ‘glob­al trav­el­ler’ from the nou­veau riche tourist.
• Fam­ily is valu­able in times of crisis when you need oth­ers you can com­pletely rely on. This has res­ul­ted in more fam­ily travels abroad.
• Mean­ing. COVID-19 reminded the Chinese how fra­gile and valu­able life is. Out­door activ­it­ies, nature, and closer con­tact with the vis­ited cul­tures and people are more sat­is­fy­ing than end­less shop­ping. ‘Mean­ing­ful Tour­ism’, which includes trips to sup­port or restore phys­ic­al and/or men­tal health will become more important. 

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Be prepared

Steve Noakes, Chair, Binna Burra Lodge; Founder, Pacific Asia Tourism; Chair, Ecolodges Indonesia

Be pre­pared for unex­pec­ted situ­ations. Work with facts, not fiction. 

Infec­tious dis­eases are an occu­pa­tion­al risk. Tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity work­places are sites of easy transmission. 

Improved aware­ness and prac­tices of hygiene are a good out­come of the pandemic. 

On their way to and from work, and while at work, pro­tect your staff through mask­ing, screen­ing, dis­tan­cing, and oth­er meas­ures that help to stop or reduce the chance of transmission. 

If a staff mem­ber has symp­toms, sup­port them to get tested. Have back-up cas­u­al staff on stand-by. 

If all your kit­chen staff are exposed a few hours before a full-house is ready for din­ner, and they have to be sent home, how will you handle that situation? 

You’ll need reserve/emergency funds to get through tough cash flow peri­ods of cus­tom­er can­cel­la­tions and dis­rup­tions to sup­ply lines. 

Ensure that more than one per­son can do crit­ic­al tasks, espe­cially inform­a­tion tech­no­logy and communications. 

And remem­ber … More than 2,000 years ago, Con­fucious said: 

“Our greatest glory is not in nev­er fall­ing, but in rising every time we fall.”

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Co-operation, preparedness, adaptability, diversification

Rwaka Mabrise, Communications Officer, Red Rocks Initiative for Sustainable Development & Red Rocks Rwanda

The main les­son learned from the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic was the import­ance of glob­al co-oper­a­tion, pre­pared­ness, and resi­li­ence in the face of health crises. 

The pan­dem­ic high­lighted the inter­con­nec­ted­ness of the world and the need for swift and coordin­ated responses to con­tain and mit­ig­ate the impact of such outbreaks. 

In Rwanda, spe­cif­ic les­sons the travel & tour­ism industry learned was the import­ance of flex­ib­il­ity, adapt­ab­il­ity, and the integ­ra­tion of health and safety measures.

Our tour­ism industry has had to adapt quickly to chan­ging cir­cum­stances, includ­ing imple­ment­ing new health and safety pro­to­cols, adjust­ing travel policies, and find­ing innov­at­ive ways to engage with travellers. 

Loc­al travel & tour­ism entit­ies have learned the crit­ic­al import­ance of pri­or­it­ising health and safety meas­ures to build trav­el­ler con­fid­ence, includ­ing rig­or­ous clean­ing, social dis­tan­cing, and com­mu­nic­at­ing safety meas­ures to travellers

Also, the pan­dem­ic accel­er­ated the adop­tion of tech­no­logy in vari­ous aspects, such as con­tact­less check-ins, digit­al health pass­ports, and online book­ing sys­tems. These innov­a­tions aim to enhance safety and improve the over­all travel experience.

Our loc­al tour oper­at­ors have recog­nised the need to diver­si­fy offer­ings to reduce depend­ency on spe­cif­ic mar­kets or types of tour­ism. This diver­si­fic­a­tion will help our tour­ism industry bet­ter with­stand future shocks.

[Red Rocks is a val­ued “Good Tour­ism” Partner]

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Modernity saved us

Jim Butcher, Reader, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK; Tourism’s Horizon; Politics of Tourism

The main les­son of the pan­dem­ic was that rich­er coun­tries can cope with what nature has to throw at us. Mod­ern medi­cine meant that the vac­cine was developed in double quick time. Tra­gic as it was for all those affected, the pandemic’s effect was, as a res­ult, far less than pan­dem­ics through­out his­tory.

It is not the travel & tour­ism industry’s role to learn such les­sons; they are there to sell hol­i­days. But, unfash­ion­able as it is to say it, I think that the industry has recom­menced oper­a­tions and growth in a com­mend­able way. 

That is test­a­ment to the mil­lions of employ­ees — some fur­loughed and oth­ers impov­er­ished dur­ing the pan­dem­ic — who work in it. Let’s show solid­ar­ity with their struggles for great­er remu­ner­a­tion, improved work­ing con­di­tions, and rights. 

Con­sequently, I do not hold with the pess­im­ist­ic view that sees the pan­dem­ic as some­thing akin to Gaia’s revenge on hub­rist­ic consumerism. 

The same les­son — that mod­ern sci­ence and growth can be organ­ised in the interests of people — can address the industry’s con­tri­bu­tion to pol­lu­tion and car­bon emissions. 

Some people wel­comed the pause in travel as a pre­curs­or of less leis­ure travel for the long term to ‘save the planet’. 

This is short sighted. We live on the cusp of an energy revolu­tion that will see us ask­ing rather dif­fer­ent ques­tions in a few decades. 

The tech­no­logy is there — elec­tric power, hydro­gen fuel cells, nuc­le­ar, and renew­ables — and it is advan­cing. The industry is learn­ing les­sons and adapting. 

But we need growth to see that through. Growth and profits provide the resources to invest in the new tech­no­logy and infra­struc­ture that will bring fun­da­ment­al changes. 

We need the Pro­methean spir­it to seize the oppor­tun­it­ies with­in our grasp. 

And we want to travel and enjoy hol­i­days because we are human.

[Tour­is­m’s Hori­zon is a val­ued “Good Tour­ism” Partner]

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The industry is not ready to learn lessons, unless …

K Michael Haywood, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph, Canada

Every­one involved in travel & tour­ism is deal­ing with the con­sequences of what we now know as long COVID; the per­sist­ent second and third order effects that no one expec­ted or was pre­pared for: 

• High levels of debt
• High interest rates
• A sup­ply crisis
• Polit­ic­al polarisation
•  An urb­an doom loop

When I wrote ‘A post-COV­ID-19 future – tour­ism re-ima­gined and re-enabled’ in 2020, I said that the sur­viv­al of vis­it­or-serving enter­prises depended on them becom­ing ‘anti-fra­gile’; pre­pared to gain from a degree of disorder. 

Based on what I’ve observed, few in the industry have been pay­ing attention. 

Why?

Their exist­ing man­age­ment prac­tices are sticky, stub­born, and suit­able only for sta­bil­ity. Prac­tices that have dulled the senses, driv­en out intu­ition, cre­ated bur­eau­cra­cies, imper­son­al­ised plan­ning, abol­ished grass­roots-learn­ing and thick-know­ing, and driv­en out com­mit­ment, human energy, and motivation.

Pro­pos­als to adapt to com­plex­ity, become more resi­li­ent, seek re-inven­tion, or change busi­ness mod­els, may be well-inten­tioned, yet pos­sibly unreal­ist­ic, unless more organ­isa­tions recog­nise that con­trol, as a core max­im of man­age­ment, is a myth when volat­il­ity, stressors, and ran­dom­ness rep­res­ent the norm. 

Many authors have opined about the future of man­age­ment, but few have actu­ally taken the time to reflect on the nuances asso­ci­ated with anti-fra­gil­ity. Here’s a simple over­view and a more com­plex explan­a­tion.  

Organ­isa­tions can­not cre­ate buf­fers from envir­on­ment­al forces, but they can engage in con­cer­ted inter­ven­tion to mod­ern­ise their mana­geri­al prac­tices, ensur­ing they become more organ­ic, more human, and more mean­ing­fully respons­ible to all the people and com­munit­ies they serve.

If organ­isa­tions are to become more aware of their options and exit ramps, and more con­nec­ted and con­cerned about the sus­tained recov­ery and well-being of their com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions, maybe they would learn a les­son or two; a les­son also revealed in the book The Wis­dom of Plagues.

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If and how the industry learned anything is ‘far from clear’

Ed Jackiewicz, Professor, California State University, Northridge, USA

If there was an upside to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic it was that it gave us all time to pause and think about what we value most, how to live our best lives, and with whom we want to spend our time. Intim­ately wrapped up in this, of course, is travel & tourism.

For many, one of life’s most pre­cious things is travel, and time away from the routine of jobs and daily activities. 

In some places, with pretty much every­one isol­ated at home for nearly two years, one of the few activ­it­ies people were allowed to do was to be out­side by themselves. 

In the US this gave a boost to nature travel, nation­al parks, and oth­er out­door, mostly sol­it­ary activities. 

The optim­ist in me believes that this has elev­ated the aver­age person’s interest in and respect and appre­ci­ation for our envir­on­ment and nature-based tour­ism. If and how the travel & tour­ism industry learned from these les­sons is far from clear at this time. 

Tour­ism for many is no longer divided from oth­er activ­it­ies; some­thing people do two weeks per year or only on week­ends. As I have dis­cussed in a pre­vi­ous “GT” Insight Bites, there are oppor­tun­it­ies to devel­op sus­tain­able niches as more people integ­rate tour­ism and recre­ation­al activ­it­ies into their every­day lives. 

For some people this has required relo­cat­ing to places that afford their desired life­style. Bend, Ore­gon is one place sought after by these ‘res­id­en­tial tour­ists’ or ‘life­style migrants’. A quick glance at the Vis­it Bend web­site clearly shows their emphas­is on the exper­i­ences one can have when vis­it­ing here. It is a place to linger and savour.

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Governments care little about small businesses

Richard Butler, Emeritus Professor of Tourism, University of Strathclyde, Scotland

I don’t think there is much that the travel & tour­ism industry can learn from COVID-19, except how vul­ner­able to a pan­dem­ic the world at large is, and how little the industry can do about it. 

People trav­el­ling dur­ing a pan­dem­ic is a dis­aster so travel & tour­ism is bound to be hit hard­est by restric­tions on movement.

I hate to say it, but I doubt if any­thing has been learned except for an increased aware­ness of how little gov­ern­ments help, or appear con­cerned about, small inde­pend­ent businesses.

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‘Lay the foundations for sustainability and resilience’

S Fatemeh Mostafavi Shirazi, Visiting scholar, Iran

COVID-19 was an unex­pec­ted shock to the world. 

Tour­ism ground to almost a stand­still, and its pro­spects con­fused experts and gov­ern­ments alike. A wide vari­ety of plans were pro­posed to get the industry going again. 

The pan­dem­ic had mul­ti­di­men­sion­al effects; social, psy­cho­lo­gic­al, polit­ic­al, and more. It was pain­ful in many ways.

And, what was the out­come? Which les­sons did the tour­ism busi­ness learn? 

It is worth not­ing that the adop­tion and applic­a­tion of les­sons from those crit­ic­al days are vital for future crises. It seems every coun­try learned its own les­sons giv­en its own set of cir­cum­stances. But some­times les­sons learned are soon forgotten. 

Post-COV­ID, sus­tain­able tour­ism plan­ning was/is a pri­or­ity top­ic among many schol­ars. A few per­spect­ives and stud­ies on the sub­ject that are of note include:

A grow­ing num­ber of stud­ies under­line the shift in con­sump­tion pat­terns and travel beha­vi­or, e.g. Baba et al. 

Some indic­ate that noth­ing much has changed on that front. Aldao et al, for example, assert that “crowded high­lights will con­tin­ue to be vis­ited, leav­ing fear and anxi­ety [behind and a grow­ing] reluct­ance to pay for addi­tion­al safety measures”. 

Some stud­ies have stressed the import­ance of crisis man­age­ment, eg. Lew et al. 

After review­ing many stud­ies, the les­son I have learned is the need to lay the found­a­tions for sus­tain­ab­il­ity and resilience. 

How to do this can be sum­mar­ised in 13 key Cs: Cre­ativ­ity, Con­sist­ency, Cap­ab­il­it­ies, Col­lab­or­a­tion, Com­mu­nic­at­ing with com­munit­ies, Con­sol­id­a­tion, Cost man­age­ment, Con­ver­gence, Con­fig­ur­a­tion, Con­nec­ted­ness, Com­pat­ib­il­ity, Com­pet­i­tion, and Culture. 

I would like to end by quot­ing Michael Hall: 

“[T]ourism is a means to an end. What really mat­ters is plan­et, people, and our families.”

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Equip tourism students with transferable skills

Shamiso Nyajeka, Head of Department, Kirirom Institute of Technology, Cambodia

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic shook every sec­tor, none more so than travel & tour­ism. Brakes were slammed on travel. Glob­al restric­tions brought the industry to a halt. 

Bey­ond the plum­met­ing vis­it­or num­bers and eco­nom­ic fal­lout, the pan­dem­ic has also reshaped tour­ism edu­ca­tion. There is a need to equip stu­dents with trans­fer­able skills to nav­ig­ate a fra­gile, evolving industry. 

Draw­ing from my exper­i­ences as a tour­ism schol­ar across Africa, Europe, and South­east Asia dur­ing and post-pan­dem­ic, I’ve wit­nessed a com­mon thread: the fra­gil­ity of the tour­ism industry. 

As the vir­us spread, the industry’s vul­ner­ab­il­ity became crys­tal clear. It is not immune to extern­al shocks, and edu­cat­ors must pre­pare stu­dents for uncertainty. 

Pan­dem­ic-induced tour­ism job losses made careers in the field seem risky and unap­peal­ing. Fear­ful of sud­den unem­ploy­ment, pro­spect­ive stu­dents became hes­it­ant to pur­sue careers in tourism. 

This wake-up call has promp­ted the edu­ca­tion sec­tor to revamp cur­ricula. By integ­rat­ing tech­no­logy and sus­tain­ab­il­ity, stu­dents gain ver­sat­ile skills, ensur­ing adapt­ab­il­ity in the face of dis­rup­tions. Such an approach not only equips stu­dents with trans­fer­able skills but also revives con­fid­ence in the industry.

Fur­ther­more, the low uptake of tour­ism pro­grams post-pan­dem­ic sig­nals a need for innov­at­ive approaches to attract­ing stu­dents. High­light­ing the industry’s dynam­ism and poten­tial for innov­a­tion could rekindle interest in tour­ism education. 

While the tour­ism industry has made strides in learn­ing from the les­sons of COVID-19, full integ­ra­tion and adapt­a­tion are ongo­ing pro­cesses. Recog­nising the need for resi­li­ence, flex­ib­il­ity, and sus­tain­ab­il­ity is cru­cial for a com­pre­hens­ive transformation. 

Con­tin­ued col­lab­or­a­tion between aca­demia and industry stake­hold­ers, adapt­a­tion to emer­ging trends, and a com­mit­ment to pre­par­ing stu­dents for the dynam­ic nature of the field are vital for ensur­ing that the les­sons of the pan­dem­ic are fully absorbed and integ­rated into the fab­ric of tour­ism edu­ca­tion and practice.

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Travellers became more climate-conscious

Herb Hiller, Writer & Publisher, The Climate Traveler, USA

By April 2020 COVID-19 was already rampant. People were pan­icked. Amer­ica soon launched Oper­a­tion Warp Speed to pro­duce a vac­cine. We appeared uni­fied. America’s malign polit­ics hadn’t yet begun its vili­fic­a­tion of the Nation­al Insti­tute of Health. 

That same month I led a present­a­tion for a South­east­ern Trail and Gre­en­ways Con­fer­ence of the East Coast Gre­en­way Alli­ance in Jack­son­ville, Flor­ida. The event was virtual. 

Our present­a­tion did not focus on the “revenge travel” that would pre­oc­cupy tour­ism prac­ti­tion­ers when Amer­ica reopened for busi­ness. Instead, it was about travel and cli­mate action, the next glob­al chal­lenge already apparent.

Stud­ies and stor­ies from around the world since the 1990s and right up to and dur­ing COVID-19, such as by the Inter­na­tion­al Mon­et­ary Fund and The Guard­i­an, had con­nec­ted the ill effects of cli­mate change to the “weath­er-sens­it­ive” tour­ism sec­tor; par­tic­u­larly in small island devel­op­ing states. 

Yet when COVID-19 restric­tions gave way to what The New York Times in mid-2023 called “two years of red-hot ‘revenge spend­ing’”, the World Travel & Tour­ism Coun­cil and the US Travel Asso­ci­ation flogged the industry to intensi­fy marketing. 

They ignored how trav­el­lers had become more ready and will­ing to take cli­mate into account when plan­ning their trips; failed to address this shift in con­sumer outlook. 

The res­ult? Intense gre­en­wash­ing and large fail­ure to even refer to “cli­mate” in des­tin­a­tion marketing.

Yet tour­ism is a free mar­ket mat­ter. If gre­en­wash­ing by the leg­acy industry con­tin­ues to slow effect­ive action, new­comers will fill the gap. 

For example, cruise-fer­ries will win over cus­tom­ers from cruise-only fleets, and new lodgings sys­tems such as 1 Hotels, Green Pearls, and Her­sha Hos­pit­al­ity will chal­lenge the likes of Hilton and Marriott.

Leis­ure and busi­ness travel will drive growth to where trav­el­lers are listened to.

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“GT” Insight Bite_X (‘X’ is up to you)

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog offers a great oppor­tun­ity to any travel & tour­ism stake­hold­er who wishes to express them­self in writ­ing for the bene­fit of “GT’s” thought­ful and open-minded read­ers. To fea­ture in the next “GT” Insight Bite com­pil­a­tion, send no more than 300 words (300 words or few­er (</=300 words)) on any tour­ism-related idea or con­cern you may have. “GT’s” pub­lish­er will per­son­ally help with basic copy edit­ing, so don’t by shy if you lack con­fid­ence in writ­ing English. 

Send your “GT” Insight Bite and pic­ture to GoodTourism@gmail.com

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What do you think? 

In a com­ment below share your own thoughts about les­sons that the travel & tour­ism industry should have learned from the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. SIGN IN or REGISTER first. (After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.) 

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers from any back­ground to share their thoughts in plain Eng­lish with a glob­al industry audience.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please … 

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Featured image (top of post)

What was the main les­son of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, and has the travel & tour­ism industry learned it? Base image gen­er­ated by DALL‑E, which was promp­ted for a sur­real­ist image of a vir­al particle in front of a classroom. Curi­ously, a request spe­cify­ing a coronavir­us particle was rejec­ted. “GT” added ‘Les­sons’.

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Previous “GT” Insight Bites

• In 2024, what are the best oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism over the next five years?
• Tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years to 2028
• On empower­ment, pro­mo­tion, and the power of expression
• On enrich­ment, repat­ri­ation, the double-edged blade, and war
• On tour­ism tech­no­logy, pro­gress, and loc­al benefit-sharing
• Hey, travel & tour­ism, are you ‘neo­co­lo­ni­al­ist’?
• Who’s the new boss? Asia Pacific tour­ism industry asso­ci­ation seeks leader
• ‘The hos­pit­al­ity industry offers a great career.’ Really?
• Cruise ships: Bless­ing or blight?
• Tour­ist vs trav­el­ler: What’s the difference?
• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
• Yes, Tour­ism Minister
• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

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