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.
EXPLOITATION
Some companies, especially in the medical and hygiene sector, have certainly been able to use the pandemic to their advantage. (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
In short tourism for me is way of living: love to travel, explore... and currently source of my income - work where I love to show tourist interested in our destination what to see and do in Slovenia. (April, 2020)
Tourism employee
Slovenia
CHALLENGES
Gaining back the element of trusting people, letting them close, not fearing crowds. (May, 2020)
Student
Slovenia
CONCERNS
When will hospitality pick up again and what is going to make people feel safe about traveling. If we are able to flatten the curve by people staying inside how will we know this won't happen again. I feel hotels, cruise ships and restaurants are going to have to do a lot of marketing and convincing to put faith back in people it is safe to stay and eat in their establishments. Additionally, with so many people losing their jobs and incomes being low even once it is safe to travel and explore when will people have the extra funds to do so. (April, 2020)
Student
United States
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
I CAN OFFER
Our metodology for marketing is based on customer typologies, personas. We work a lot with models that combine the destination's resources and products with the personas that can be relevant for the destination. We also have resources regarding sustainability issues and culturally sensitivity in tourism, as we work a lot with Sami tourism. (May, 2020)
Tourism or convention office, event organizer
Norway
I NEED
We need tourists. Or help to find a digital way of earning money on what we do. (April, 2020)
Tourism business representative
Sweden
SOLUTIONS
Not specifically, but it's crucial to use the right psychological procedures (right words, slogans, music, messages) in marketing purposes. The goal of that would be managing crowds of people (tourists) in order to diminish their anxiety, fear of other people and travelling around. (April, 2020)
Student
Slovenia
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 every organization/company... should start to prepare some kind of plan. They should try to adapt and work from home, come up with alternatives so they don't completely lose costumers/visitors...For example many museums started to offer virtual tours. (March, 2020)
