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
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)
Student
Slovenia
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
The activity of travelling and experiencing the variety of the world's natural and cultural commons. (July, 2020)
Researcher, academic
Cyprus
CHALLENGES
A virtual meeting/webinar is the future trend for the convention/conference business. Event organizers may suffer revenue loss as these days "on-the-spot" meetings are not as popular as they were in the past. (April, 2020)
Tourism or convention office, event organizer
United States
CONCERNS
I am concerned for the employees at each of the properties because being furlough I imagine is very difficult. I also am concerned for my boss, I do not want him to lose any of the properties because this is not something he can control. I am also concerned for the company as a whole because they are making little money.
In the eyes of the company, I am concerned the employees will not come back after the properties are allowed to reopen, that leaves a lot of hiring and HR work for our company (mainly my boss). I am also concerned to lose a lot of the suppliers we have for each property. (April, 2020)
Tourism employee
United States
IDEAS
After all this is over I wish there could be some type of travel focused event that involves getting people together to share their COVID-19 experiences and stories so that we can not only return to normal but come out of it as a better people and society collectively. I'm hoping that this will help open peoples eyes about how we need to change as a society and just how far we have truly strayed from our humanity. (March, 2020)
Student
United States
I CAN OFFER
Usually local operators have partnerships with other local operators - we stick together and support each other. This is true in the Northwest Territories, Canada. (April, 2020)
Tourism business representative
Canada
I NEED
Just a chat. (November, 2020)
Student
Croatia
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
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)
Student
Japan
OTHER / SPOTTED
Don't spend this time stressing but building the future plans and gaining new knowledge that will be useful in the next few years. (April, 2020)
