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.
More measures by the state to encourage and support tourism activity. (July, 2020)
Joie de vivre. (April, 2020)
[Professor] To prepare my students for a post-COVID-19 world. (May, 2020)
I personally am very afraid of a second wave. I hope that the measures were not relaxed too soon. Because politicians have given away quite a few financial packages in the past, but these almost only help large companies, I fear that many small businesses will not be able to reopen their businesses. (June, 2020)
Covid-19 should be used as a reset for the travel industry and an opportunity to grow new destinations. Over the past 10 years, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Iceland have been drowned in tourists to the point of the visitors having detrimental impacts to many historic or natural sites. A lot of this travel is motivated by viral photos on social media and influencers travelling to these destinations. Unfortunately, many beautiful and culturally rich countries aren't given this kind of attention and are completely ignored by tourists. A few that would fit into this category are Sao Tome & Principe, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Tajikistan, Mauritania, Iran, Chad, Djibouti, and the Central African Republic. (April, 2020)
I can keep people company or help them with basic info about how to use electronic devices to keep in touch with friend and relatives. (April, 2020)
As I do understand that understanding topics we take them at school is important, we should take this opportunity for the whole tourism sector to step together and create a good set of actions. As there would be actions taken from an actions such as recommended, we would have an opportunity to change an educating system as well, as we all know, it needs an upgrade. Students (from what we talk to each other) would like to be present at resolving actual current problems more, as some teachers already are taking these actions (for example giving students to write, think and evolve solutions to the actual problems happening in present time). (April, 2020)
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)
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)
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)