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The 2020 pandemic and previous years’ overtourism issues showed us both the benefits, the relevance, and the limits of the tourism, hospitality and leisure industries for society. We cannot foresee the future, but we can listen to challenges and start developing solutions.
So far we have received more than 900 responses in which these questions have been discussed::
In the name of the global tourism family, many thanks to every single one of you for the inspiring feedback. Your replies are summarized in the sections below.
Don't forget to share YOUR insights (for the first time or again, with new observations):
The 10 quotes below are updated every few minutes and elephant word-clouds are recalculated regularly based on your new survey entries. You have to refresh the page or revisit us every so often to see the changed content.
From co-creating new stories, writing them down, connecting the partners, implementing ideas into the practice, organizing activities, discussing with media, public presentations and networking. (March, 2020)
Tourism became life for me about five years ago. When I started my journey as a tour guide, I gave up a lot. The main guideline was that I like to travel, research and share all the acquired knowledge with guests in Slovenia, Europe and around the world. I think we are slowly growing over the years and adding chapters step by step to our tourism career. (July, 2020)
Declining demand, late bookings. Before the virus, we made reservations a few months earlier, but today customers book a holiday just before departure, so it is always difficult to fulfill all customers' wishes. (July, 2020)
(1) People’s values/view to tourism services after COVID-19 including how technologies can support tourism sectors in terms of social interaction. (2) The utilization of seniors’ participation to tourism services as a service provider. (April, 2020)
The current inability to meet physically will place a future premium on face to face meetings, especially if these decline in frequency. We wil probably see a rise in digital meetings (particularly now everybody is on Zoom), and people will start to use physical meetings not just as a way to have face to face experiences, but also to escape the tyranny of omnipresent digital meetings. (May, 2020)
I can speak about my experiences in tennis coaching and mountainbike guiding while the crisis. All the points you have to note before starting the training and how you have to handle the customers. (October, 2020)
Some resources I may need are contacts and a good platform to build upon if I wanted to put my ideas to practice. I don't know if a preexisting site would be best or something new, so I would need guidance from a lot of people! (April, 2020)
I am from a small town in Virginia/Tennessee and one of my favorite restaurants has impressed the community throughout this pandemic. They are an upscale restaurant offering foods from sushi and stir fry to burgers and tacos. Tuesday nights are half price sushi nights- the community's favorite. While the dining area has been closed, they are still offering their deals on their respective nights. By offering their special on delivery and to-go orders, they received as much business as a normal day. To my benefit, once they were overwhelmed with the number of orders in the afternoon, they honored the deal prices the next day to those they couldn't accommodate on Tuesday. They even offered their Tuesday deal on Sundays, as they saw the huge success of it. They have even began to sell gallons of beer and margaritas, pints and quarts of their soups, etc. Things that they don't normally do. The greatest help to the community has been the restaurants ability to buy things such as toilet paper, paper towels, sugar, flour, etc. in bulk and sell at a breakeven price to customers. These are things that are sold out in grocery stores and are in high demand. They are able to take advantage of their suppliers and help get the community what they need, even without the desire to make a profit off of it. I know that there are many customers and community members that are impressed with the way the restaurant is handling this crisis and are thankful for their efforts! (March, 2020)
Tourist vouchers should also be redeemable in travel agencies, restaurants, museums and national parks. Now some providers are earning a lot, while others are in red numbers.. (August, 2020)
Impact of COVID-19 on Travel: Foreign Travel Industry Needs an Immediate Rescue Plan:
This article is based on India's data but it could be translated to all the other countries in the world affected by coronavirus, because it is hitting the tourism sector the same way everywhere.
First it states that globally there is already an economic recession due to the fact that more than one-third of the global population is under restrictions. One of the worst-hit sectors is the tourism travel industry, not only by the evidence of the quarantine but also the cancellation of all the international flights. Currency exchange market depends a lot on travelling so it will drop off incredibly.
During the last years tourism was unstoppably growing in India but now this sector will have just to fight for survival, because even if quarantine ends and people go back to their jobs, travelling will probably still be restricted. He is also stating that in many countries the governments already started up plans for saving the tourism sector but India is not one of them, and should start working on that.
He gives four possible solutions to it: Cancel or postpone the proposed TCS on foreign travel that was introduced in the Finance Bill (2020), One-year GST Relief, Exclusive Fund Allocation for the Tourism Sector, Interest-free Credit Facilities for the Travel Sector.
See the original file here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/348757 (April, 2020)