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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::
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.
VIPs saying we're all in this together to promote themselves. (April, 2020)
For me, tourism has just as much to do with locality as with business. I believe that we need to discuss tourism not only from a touristic point of view, but rather from a perspective where local businesses, infrastructure, cultural institutions and the local societies in total is taken into consideration as the foundation for all tourism. Since tourism affects all parts of a local community, tourism development should work bottom-up, where locals are involved to ensure that development follows up on the locals values and needs for their own society. With this approach, tourism can add to sustainable growth and welfare, contribute to increased cultural understanding and respect and be a part of the environmental solutions. (May, 2020)
I had to postpone my personal South America travels - however, I used that money to invest into training of my own skills. So actually I am very much very good off right now... (May, 2020)
Constant cancellations, changed mode of travel. (July, 2020)
Using VR Technology: Now that people are home for a while, it might be worth considering using VR technology to showcase your accommodation services. In tourism we are faced with a very large number of intangible activities and thus the clients buy a cat in a sack. VR technology could somewhat reduce this intangibility. In addition, people are now in the pre-purchase phase of daydreaming about a new trip. (April, 2020)
Data on youth travel responses to Covid 19 - now being published with WYSE Travel Confederation. (May, 2020)
Information. Lots of information. We need to know what we can do to improve the situation and to help other people. (June, 2020)
I am from a small town in Virginia/Tennessee and one of my favorite restaurants has impressed the community throughout this pandemic. They are an upscale restaurant offering foods from sushi and stir fry to burgers and tacos. Tuesday nights are half price sushi nights- the community's favorite. While the dining area has been closed, they are still offering their deals on their respective nights. By offering their special on delivery and to-go orders, they received as much business as a normal day. To my benefit, once they were overwhelmed with the number of orders in the afternoon, they honored the deal prices the next day to those they couldn't accommodate on Tuesday. They even offered their Tuesday deal on Sundays, as they saw the huge success of it. They have even began to sell gallons of beer and margaritas, pints and quarts of their soups, etc. Things that they don't normally do. The greatest help to the community has been the restaurants ability to buy things such as toilet paper, paper towels, sugar, flour, etc. in bulk and sell at a breakeven price to customers. These are things that are sold out in grocery stores and are in high demand. They are able to take advantage of their suppliers and help get the community what they need, even without the desire to make a profit off of it. I know that there are many customers and community members that are impressed with the way the restaurant is handling this crisis and are thankful for their efforts! (March, 2020)
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)
Thank you so much for putting this together it is truly amazing and I hope it makes a difference. (April, 2020)