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::
How should we IMAGINE tourism now that we have an opportunity to reset the way we do business?
Which CHANGES would you like to see? If any?
What are your CHALLENGES and CONCERNS?
What are your IDEAS and SOLUTIONS to make it through the pandemic AND into a sustainable and innovative future of tourism?
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.
TOURISM MEANS
For me, tourism is the most important thing in life. Without tourism, my family would not have work in our valley and probably they had to move to a bigger city to find new work. Tourism guarantees us a high standard of living in the most beautiful places on Earth. (June, 2020)
Student
Italy
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Tourism business representative
Bosnia Herzegovina
Tourist
Singapore
Tourism business representative
Slovakia
#From Instagram
TOURISM MEANS
Leisure time and learning from new places and people. (April, 2020)
Tourist
Italy
CHALLENGES
There are changing travel conditions and challenging times if you want to travel. But there are also cuttings in your personal life, like the university life. I haven't seen my colleagues from university since February. The learning from home is challenging because no one could tell you how you should do it, its new for everyone. At work, we had short-time work for about half a year, and we still don't know what happens next. (October, 2020)
Student
Austria
CONCERNS
As a single female traveller I am concerned about my safety even more in times like this. I usually like to travel to different places that involve staying in hostels and using local public transportation. I am not very likely to travel to a far off destination this year (and maybe not next year either, depending on the availability of a vaccination). My next "big" trip will definitely involve either a tour operator (additional safety net) or visiting friends abroad who have a local network and can help out in case this would be needed. Hearing news about people in hostels being stopped from going out by the police is very scary and I do not want to have to experience this. I nonetheless would not book an all-inclusive hotel stay either though. (April, 2020)
Tourist
Germany
IDEAS
We are considering how to mitigate the damage as much as possible. We have expanded our product range. (July, 2020)
Tourism business representative
Slovenia
I CAN OFFER
Sharing of efforts by OTA and fintech companies and so on. (April, 2020)
Researcher, academic
Japan
I NEED
We need tourists. Or help to find a digital way of earning money on what we do. (April, 2020)
Tourism business representative
Sweden
SOLUTIONS
Given that the country is closed and that people are scared, I don’t see many solutions, and I don’t have good practice yet. I went back to the time when I founded the company. I make reservations for hotels for the citizens of Slovenia, which received a tourist voucher from the state. At the moment, this is the only way I pay all the costs of the company. (July, 2020)
Tourism employee
Slovenia
EXPLOITATION
I think it is insane that you have to pay over €90 to get tested for COVID 19. There are a lot of people who cannot afford it especially when they were put on "Kurzarbeit" or lost their job. I think everyone should be able to get tested for free. (June, 2020)
Student
Austria
OTHER / SPOTTED
Don't spend this time stressing but building the future plans and gaining new knowledge that will be useful in the next few years. (April, 2020)
