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.
TOURISM MEANS
Tourism for me means travelling to foreign or well-know places, where I can relax and unwind to forget the everyday life. (October, 2020)
Student
Austria
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
It is a way of life, business-wise as well as living that kind of life in private. (April, 2020)
Tourism business representative
Slovenia
CHALLENGES
Normally I earn most of my money during the winter season. This year I could just work half-season until everything shut down. Now for my and my family, the biggest challenge is for sure to find new ways to earn enough money also during this crisis. (June, 2020)
Student
Italy
CONCERNS
People have less appetite for travelling in flying aluminium tubes or sailing in floating tin cans. (May, 2020)
Tourism or convention office, event organizer
United Kingdom
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
I CAN OFFER
The best resource I can offer to others is the power to brainstorm new ideas to improve the service processes in our tourism facilities. Just with a lot of innovation and new ways of service it is possible to reach the end with a success and not become a victim of it. (June, 2020)
Student
Italy
I NEED
Personally as a student of tourism studies, the main source of resources would be produced from the faculty itself as in this action it would reach to many other students that are able to produce benefits to solution to the problem itself. Probably it would be very productive to create some "brainstorm" activities in classes themselves, and that would also be considered when grading a student. For the whole education system it would as well be good as you said it yourself, we have a very good opportunity to change tourism industry for good in a good way for all of us, and i think that the school system is forgetting about inovative thinking of students. (April, 2020)
Tourism employee
Slovenia
SOLUTIONS
Protect the resource at all costs. If communities and the attraction (I'm thinking here wildlife) isn't benefiting then it's time to re-consider new options. (April, 2020)
Researcher, academic
Canada
EXPLOITATION
There have been cases I heard of where companies would apply for financial support from the government, even though they where not entitled to get it and had no real need for it. (June, 2020)
Student
Austria
OTHER / SPOTTED
I think that the fact tourism is highly affected is not that big of the problem. Yes it’s true that people won’t travel during the epidemic, but when everything is over, people will travel again, they won’t just stop. Maybe this is a great chance for everybody to see how much we all can do to help restore Earth, not just in tourism, but in the whole industry sector. (March, 2020)
