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 means exploring new countries and places. Personally I don't refer to myself as a tourist when im going to other places. I would say im more like a visitor. I feel like being a tourist has some kind of a bad stigma. I know how it feels if you see more tourists in your city than locals. Thats why I try to not to behave as a tourist when im on vacation. Tourism also plays a big role in the creation and conservation of jobs. So in some way it also feels like a secure and steady income source for a lot of people. (September, 2020)
Student
Austria
Explore #TourismFromZero perspectives
Different perspectives on the selected topic: ALL
Tourism business representative
Bosnia Herzegovina
Tourist
Singapore
Tourism business representative
Slovakia
#From Instagram
TOURISM MEANS
Once someone said that travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer, and I couldn’t agree more. Because, to me, travel means to live fully, to accept others, to learn in every area you can and to allow the world to shape you into the best person you can truly be. (April, 2020)
Student
Bosnia Herzegovina
CHALLENGES
I have lost my job at a hotel in March at the beginning of the crisis. Now during summer I am going to work at a surfing school and I am not sure if there are going to be enough guests and how it is possible to work there with the students respecting the hygiene concepts. But it was also hard to study during the crisis because we did not have any course at university but only online. It was hard for me to stay focused at these times and not seeing my friends and colleges to get physical support. Furthermore, it was difficult for me that our freedom got limited and we could not move like we usually do. (June, 2020)
Student
Austria
CONCERNS
My concern is that after COVID-19 pandemic accessibility to culture and heritage will be limited with negative consequences especially for more vulnerable visitors, including people with disabilities. Too often these visitors are already excluded from their right “freely to participate in the cultural life of the community and to enjoy the arts” (Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). (May, 2020)
Researcher, academic
Italy
IDEAS
My ideas are for local restaurants to make "survival kits" of whatever their specialty is. If it's a pizza shop then "make your own pizza kits". If it's a bakery then you could have "make your own cookies kit". These are little ways to make money and give people something fun to do this this scary, unpredictable time. (April, 2020)
Local resident
United States
I CAN OFFER
The best resource I can offer to others is the power to brainstorm new ideas to improve the service processes in our tourism facilities. Just with a lot of innovation and new ways of service it is possible to reach the end with a success and not become a victim of it. (June, 2020)
Student
Italy
I NEED
Some resources I need are some positive statistics about the coronavirus that can help keep people's heads high. (April, 2020)
Local resident
United States
SOLUTIONS
A very cool best practice I found is placed in Alta Badia. In this summer every hut and restaurant in the mountains is offering the possibility to take away the lunch in a picnic basket. With this service, you don't have to sit down on a table but you can join your meal on a meadow. (June, 2020)
Student
Italy
EXPLOITATION
Lots of people lose their jobs do to this crisis. Employees have to get rid of a lot of job places because they need to safe money and the people who are still working for this company get less paid than before. Lots of employees in Austria exploited the "Kurzarbeit" because they got money from the government but the workers in this company still worked the same amount of hours than before, but they got less income. (October, 2020)
Student
Austria
OTHER / SPOTTED
I am really liking the idea about starting over in the field of tourism. I think it's a great idea because the tourism industry has been doing amazing so far for many years and had a lot of profit from different airline companies bringing bilions every year and so on, but I still think that with starting all over we could do even better and make tourism industry better than ever. (March, 2020)
