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.
IDEAS
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)
Tourist
United States
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
Leisure time and learning from new places and people. (April, 2020)
Tourist
Italy
CHALLENGES
All is limited, but possible. (November, 2020)
Student
Croatia
CONCERNS
I’m a bit scared that even after the pandemic some people might find socializing, especially with foreigners, a little off putting. So my main concern is not being able to experience the social life of a city in its full glory, when people aren’t afraid of human contact and getting to know travelers. (April, 2020)
Student
Slovenia
IDEAS
Reach out to personal connections or recruiters on LinkedIn looking for opportunities for remote, unpaid work to gain experience and to professors about unpaid/not-for-credit undergraduate research opportunities. (April, 2020)
Student
United States
I CAN OFFER
The local knowledge, for hiking in the surrounding mountains. I can show beautiful little places in nature to relax. (June, 2020)
Student
Austria
I NEED
I think our company needs a good and positive employee force, including maintaining good HR practices and encouragement to give employees. Personally, the company also needs a plan from our boss going forward (as hard and uncertain as the world is making that on him). (April, 2020)
Tourism employee
United States
SOLUTIONS
Take care of your employees, customers, and business partners, foster an atmosphere of trust and use the time to foster a growth mindset as well as offer (cross-)trainings, webinars, explore ideas of your employees (May, 2020)
Tourism business representative
Germany
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
It's been about 30 years since I started this job. I have experienced the collapse of the Internet bubble, the Lehman shock, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and so on. Marketing techniques such as sales measures, cost control, and attracting customers during these times are the know-how of tourism that cannot be learned in normal times. (June, 2020)
