Latest news:
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.
This virus has made it very difficult to come up with solutions to this problem when it comes to being a tourist. People don't show symptoms for up to 2 weeks and many people can be asymptomatic. Something I actually heard the other day was that studies are being done that have shown that the spread of the virus is much lower during outdoor events. For example soccer games. I can attest to this because my dad and I went to 2 soccer games during the outbreak and we did not get the virus. So an interesting idea would make public transportation open-air somehow. This would allow people to get around without being stuck inside a vehicle where this virus can run rampant. Outdoor events can also be reopened with maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of the number of people to allow for them to social distance a little while being at this outdoor event. This would allow for tourists to go to places and do some things involved in that culture while slowing the spread of the virus. (April, 2020)
I can't imagine my life without tourism. It is my work, passion and joy. (July, 2020)
It will be hard to open our own tourism businesses, which action will we have to take, and how long will it take, to have those opportunities back as were presented to us, before the crisis. (April, 2020)
When In London it was only a few weeks into this pandemic. It was actually right before it became a pandemic. When we were there we were very cautious when we were in public. Especially when we were trying to leave we were concerned about going to Heathrow because it is one of the busiest airports in the world. We were also concerned about using public transportation because that is how we would get around to all of our destinations. (April, 2020)
All my writing at the moment is exploring how we respond. This was my previous article: https://news.wtm.com/a-future-template-for-resilience-how-we-can-repurpose-tourism-and-champion-local-areas/
My next one, published later this week, looks at how we maintain solidarity during the challenging times ahead. It will also be on WTM's website. (April, 2020)
I am availible if people want to talk - wheter they have troubles accepting these new situation. (March, 2020)
Advocacy and research to examine the extend to which local operators are good for local economies and data mining to determine the degree of public funding going to non-local businesses and myriad of funding eligibility rules across the circumpolar world. Perhaps our jurisdiction could learn from others. (April, 2020)
Offering alternative future dates later this year and then next year instead of automatically accepting a cancellation. (May, 2020)
Not do much an exploitation as such, but discounting I see amongst hotels in Japan will not save the industry as it causes the Prisoner's Dilemma. Everyone could suffer as a result. (April, 2020)
Three travel startups response to COVID19
The article highlighted on how these three big travel agencies Get Your Guide,Omio and Travel perk are responding to the Covid19 pandemic.All the three agencies reported a major drop in bookings combined with customer cancellation and reschedule of the travel plans. The three founders of this agencies described there is sudden revenue crunch with high levels of uncertainty due to the pandemic.Get you Guide agency copied to the situation by re-routing resources to service more on near-term customer needs through improved flexibility of cancellation of bookings and refunding systems .Omio and Travel Perk, the two agencies decided to reflect on duty of care. This is focused on supporting its customers,employees with safety measures and are taking the time to research on which investments they can engage or pull out at the current moment.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/13/three-travel-startups-tell-us-how-theyre-responding-to-the-coronavirus-crisis/ (April, 2020)