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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.
I can't describe tourism just with one word, for me its very complex and not all about a business sector. As I'm from Austria, I know that tourism is one of the biggest player in our country and we couldn't live this comfortable life without all the tourists that are visiting us during the year. But at the same time I'm a tourist as well, when I visit other countries or cities, so I can see both sites and think in a world like this we all know both sites and we barely think about the consequences we cause, by traveling this much and "fast". To cut a long story short, tourism means freedom to me but in the same way it can stress me out, as I'm living in Vienna with a lot of ignorance tourists all day long. (October, 2020)
Tourism service activities a small part of our offer, but are a nice complement to our primary activity (cheesmaking). (May, 2020)
In my opinion the biggest challenge will be how to alleviate the deep grounded fear that is right now in people and how to persuade them that the world is still safe place for travelling and that other people are not threat anymore. The political measures and role of media are going to be the two mayor factors that will either encourage people to be positive or negative, pesimistic. They will either encourage people to go back to before established travelling routines and continue their lives or block them with reporting just negative news, as the media is doing right now globally. (April, 2020)
I am very worried about all the small shops and businesses like familiy run hotels that are now on the verge of extinction and that nothing will be the same anymore for them. (June, 2020)
COVID-19 is an opportunity to reflect on our value system, and society. What is the most important to us? what are the values and things that we treasure? (June, 2020)
I am availible if people want to talk - wheter they have troubles accepting these new situation. (March, 2020)
We need customers, interesting local providers, accommodations that will meet safety standards. (July, 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)
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)
I really like the idea. But I am afraid the world is too greedy to make any honest changes in any other direction than making money/profit. (May, 2020)