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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.
Deciding which hotel is clean and COVID-19 free is a big decision when deciding where to stay for work during this outbreak. Numerous employers still need their employees to travel for their job, while it may not have to be through airlines, traveling involves the need to stay somewhere for a short period of time. (April, 2020)
An opportunity to engage. (April, 2020)
Working on- line, managing family and work and housework at the same time, finding germ-free shopping solutions; anxiety. (May, 2020)
One of my biggest, personal concerns is about my grandparents getting infected with the virus. Yet, the shutdown brings enormous economic consequences with it. In my estimation, my generation will be premanently affected by it. Moreover, we are facing the largest amount of unemployment since World War 2, this really makes me anxious about our future. (June, 2020)
Because staying at home all day and scrolling through old photos of your travels increases your desire to travel even more, I came up with an idea to virtually travel to the destination you have always wanted to go! On one website we would combine the countries, cities, attractions, etc. who have the technology to present themselves in a virtual way so they can show their product or experience to the wider public. Attractions could also market their products and offer the customer to buy a voucher for future visits to help with the financial crisis they are facing. The slogan would be something like this: Don't stop traveling, travel in a different (virtual) way! With this idea we also aim to encourage as many tourism business owners as possible to put their businesses in a virtual form to ensure that they can be seen even during these hard times. It gives them a chance right now to target more people and to improve their engagement. And when this crisis is over the site would still be active for fulfilling the same purpose - to give a chance to the providers to represent themselves in a virtual way. (March, 2020)
Sharing of efforts by OTA and fintech companies and so on. (April, 2020)
For tourist right now there is only the option to dream of future trips and looking back at past ones. Many destinations around the world already offer digital content to facilitate this. In the future it will be important to receive information about the immunity of the population and I am sure that less crowded destinations will be more popular in the short run. (April, 2020)
Regarding the tourism in Austria I think the best thing we can do as locals is to support the Austrian economic system. This starts with buying local products, spending "holiday" in Austria, visiting smaller restaurants or supporting smaller companies that fight to survive. (October, 2020)
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)
Home entertainment by the hand of tourism enterprises
This article explains that many tourism enterprises are keeping the contact with their clients, creating activities for kids and adults to help them go through these hard quarantine times. But, why do they do it if it is not their job?
The idea is keep in touch with the clients, even if they are not going to book anything with them right now, to remind clients that they will still be there when the things get stabilized, clients will remember them and start booking again. It is a long view strategy, but I think it is a smart movement from tourism enterprises instead of being just observers of the disaster.
See the original file here: https://www.hosteltur.com/135925_entretenimiento-en-casa-de-la-mano-de-las-empresas-turisticas.html (April, 2020)