TOURISM MEANS

Tourism for me means to travel and see new places in the first place. Whether I’m only visiting a nice village or a city in Austria for a couple of days or take a trip around the world for a longer time, tourism is a way to explore. The other big part of tourism is to get to know new people, new cultures and explore different styles of living. Since I myself am a huge fan of travelling and experience as much as possible, tourism is a key thing in my life and hopefully will never get lost in those times. (October, 2020)

Student

Austria

CHALLENGES

I love my home country Austria and all the peculiarities, but I also miss going abroad and have some time to relax far away from the everyday stress. But the biggest challenge is to stay calm and sit in the home office and there is nothing you can do against the virus. But all after all that's only complaining on a high comfort level. I should be happy that all of my family members are healthy and nobody lost the job or anything like that. (December, 2020)

Student

Austria

CONCERNS

I am not concerned about tourism in general. I do however worry about small businesses and tour guides who are already dormant during the winter months and are waiting for the summer season to accumulate their earnings, which likely will not be possible this year. They are in great danger of going out of business, but overall at the macro level, tourism should return to its old path. How long this will take is extremely difficult to predict. A week ago, the WTO predicted a 3 % to 4% drop in global travel, yet today we are already at a 30% drop. Jobs are definitely at risk. What I can say with confidence is that this crisis will bring some changes. There will now be a lot of room for innovation and adaptation of current work processes. I do not think tourism will die, but it will evolve. (April, 2020)

Student

Slovenia

IDEAS

We must strive to create a new tourism - a more sustainable one. This will have to be developed in the coming months. (September, 2020)

Tourism employee

Slovenia

I CAN OFFER

I work in the hotel management in a luxury castle. There we can provide our guests the maximum comfort with a 8 ha garden (and we only have 25 rooms/suits) so it is perfect for guests, who want a short break from there everyday life, who wants to relaxe, who wants to enjoy the nature.

So nowadays it is necessary to provide your guests everything they want. That they leave your hotel with a smile. (October, 2020)

Student

Austria

I NEED

I am good for now beacause of state financial aid for tourist bussineses. (October, 2020)

Student

Croatia

SOLUTIONS

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)

Tourism employee

Slovenia

EXPLOITATION

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)

Student

Austria

OTHER / SPOTTED

Impact of COVID-19 on Travel: Foreign Travel Industry Needs an Immediate Rescue Plan:

This article is based on India's data but it could be translated to all the other countries in the world affected by coronavirus, because it is hitting the tourism sector the same way everywhere.

First it states that globally there is already an economic recession due to the fact that more than one-third of the global population is under restrictions. One of the worst-hit sectors is the tourism travel industry, not only by the evidence of the quarantine but also the cancellation of all the international flights. Currency exchange market depends a lot on travelling so it will drop off incredibly.

During the last years tourism was unstoppably growing in India but now this sector will have just to fight for survival, because even if quarantine ends and people go back to their jobs, travelling will probably still be restricted. He is also stating that in many countries the governments already started up plans for saving the tourism sector but India is not one of them, and should start working on that.

He gives four possible solutions to it: Cancel or postpone the proposed TCS on foreign travel that was introduced in the Finance Bill (2020), One-year GST Relief, Exclusive Fund Allocation for the Tourism Sector, Interest-free Credit Facilities for the Travel Sector.

See the original file here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/348757 (April, 2020)

Student

Spain