The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to the tourism business in Switzerland. Although it is a minor position in the Swiss export balance, it is nevertheless of considerable importance for ...those regions of the country that attract domestic and foreign visitors. As a consequence of the lockdown measures, combined with close borders and travel bans, tourism collapsed and only briefly and partly recovered in summer. Its future is uncertain and depends on people’s (future guests’) attitudes and decisions as much as on the economy, political measures and, of course, the progress of the pandemic. Will there be an ‘after’ COVID-19?.
This study assesses the impact of Mainland China’s open-door and closed-door tourism policies on tourist arrivals in Taiwan using the regression control method. The period from 2001 to 2019 ...highlights that political dynamics significantly influence tourism flows. The enactment of the open-door policy (2008–2015) coincided with a marked increase of Mainland Chinese tourists in Taiwan, averaging an annual rise of 2.19 million. In contrast, the closed-door policy (2016–2019) saw a drastic average annual reduction of 2.53 million visitors. These stark contrasts confirm the potent effect of political policies on tourism. The research underscores the potential of tourism as a diplomatic bridge, suggesting strategic importance for policymakers and industry leaders in navigating the intersection of politics and tourism.
•This study examines the impacts of Mainland China’s open-door and closed-door tourism policies on tourist arrivals in Taiwan.•We use the regression control method to estimate the policy effects.•Open-door tourism policy leads to an average annual rise of 2.19 million tourists.•Closed-door tourism policy results in an average annual reduction of 2.53 million visitors.
Disease outbreaks and pandemics have long played a role in societal and economic change. However, the nature of such change is selective, meaning that it is sometimes minimal and, at other times, and ...change or transformation may be unexpected, potentially even reinforcing contemporary paradigms. A comprehensive overview of pandemics and their effects is provided. This is used to help contextualise the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on tourism and government, industry and consumer response. Drawing on the available literature, factors that will affect tourism and destination recovery are then identified. Some measures will continue or even expand present growth orientations in tourism while others may contribute to sustainability. It is concluded that that the selective nature of the effects of COVID-19 and the measures to contain it may lead to reorientation of tourism in some cases, but in others will contribute to policies reflecting the selfish nationalism of some countries. However, the response to planetary limits and sustainable tourism requires a global approach. Despite clear evidence of this necessity, the possibility for a comprehensive transformation of the tourism system remains extremely limited without a fundamental transformation of the entire planet.
The article explores the effects of cultural heritage in fostering tourism demand. We look at the role of UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) in the enhancement of tourism destinations (TDs) ...competitiveness. In such a perspective, taking Italian regions in the period 1995–2010 as a case study, TDs performance is evaluated and the effects of WHL are assessed, by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA) two-stage approach, in which the determinants of efficiency scores are investigated, employing semiparametric regression. The empirical results show that, while cultural and environmental endowment positively affect the performance of Italian TDs, the presence of UNESCO sites exerts opposite effects. A possible explanation for such results is that the WHL inscription generates positive expectations on both tourism demand and supply, their fulfillment depending on adequate local policies. Thus, policy recommendations to improve the public decision-making process are derived.
•We explore the effects of heritage on tourism destinations (TDs) performance in Italian regions.•TD performance is assessed as technical efficiency using DEA.•We find that cultural and environmental endowment positively affect TDs technical efficiency.•WHL inscription is negatively associated to TDs technical efficiency.•To overcome accommodation oversupply generated by UNESCO WHL requires a new policy design.
The COVID-19 pandemic left a strong mark on the tourism sector and represents a turning point in its evolution. After the activities were gradually resumed, substantial shifts in both industry ...practices and tourist behavior were observed. The knowledge of these changes is of strategic importance for the future because they will determine the managerial decisions at the microeconomic level and the trends at the macroeconomic one. The present paper aims to discern the shifts in tourist behavior, as perceived by tourism companies, and to investigate how these changes influenced business decisions. This investigation was conducted as part of the CredinGreen international project– `Responding to tourism market changes caused by COVID-19 and the EU Green Deal through micro-credential-certified upskilling of SME tourism managers`. The research addresses the response to tourism market fluctuations generated by the pandemic conditions and the results could enhance the tourism policies and the micro-credential certified upskilling initiatives.
This paper examines progress in tourism planning and policy knowledge and identifies gaps and future directions for research. The study employs a post-structuralist perspective presented in two ...analytical movements: a bibliographic study of tourism policy and planning publications in Scopus and Science Direct and thematic analysis, plus an archaeological excavation. This combined approach pays attention to the disruptions, silences and diversity of knowledge in tourism policy and planning. It highlights the way tourism planning and policy has been problematized and reveals the social regularities shaping the production of tourism planning and policy knowledge. Multi-disciplinary, mainstream subjects related to destination development and management dominate while critical analysis of economic and political structures, interests and values is lagging. The results point to an urgent need to progress tourism planning and policy towards greater visibility, legitimacy and importance in tourism studies through more critical engagement with tourism public policy and planning practice.
•Progress in tourism planning and policy is assessed using a post-structural approach.•A thematic bibliographic analysis and a critical policy archaeology was used.•We reveal the constitutive grid of forces that shape policy knowledge.•Progress is shaped by problematization and social regularities.•A paradox of policy problematization is uncovered.
This work explores the ways in which COVID-19 has affected the discourse on public tourism planning in Copenhagen and how policies meet the challenges of the climate crisis. Inspired by the concept ...of ‘governmobility’, we explore changes in discourse on how urban tourism policies aim to ease and control access, mobility, and circulation. The implementation of the DMO Wonderful Copenhagen's ‘localhood’ strategy has tried to cope with issues of over-tourism by engaging locals who also have access to the attractions and experiences offered to tourists. Meanwhile, the planned growth in international tourism, despite the COVID-19 lockdowns, has not been dismantled but rather reaffirmed. This includes plans for major extensions of Copenhagen Airport. Development corporations in tourism and urban development thus try to reconcile sustainable development with economic growth, which is apparent in the 2022 ‘Comeback Copenhagen’ and ‘Planet Copenhagen’ strategies. Copenhagen aims to become the most sustainable tourist destination, without taking into consideration that the main greenhouse gas emissions come from the ways tourists travel to and from the destination.
•Copenhagen's strategy addressing over-tourism does not target the climate emergency.•In urban tourism development, locals must gain advantages from tourist attractions.•Copenhagen's post-pandemic strategy reaffirms pre-pandemic tourism growth strategies.•Tourism growth policies are supported by entrepreneurial development corporations.•Climate change mitigation in tourism seems impossible but remains the only realistic option.
As has been demonstrated by international organizations, as well as by scientific literature, the expansion of tourism can cause environmental deterioration, such that tourism has a very high ...environmental cost in relation to the benefits it brings to those societies hosting it. In such a context, this research aims to investigate the relationships that may exist between the expansion of touristic activity and environmental sustainability, with its main objective being to substantiate that the relationship between tourism and environmental sustainability is not unidirectional, as well as to establish that sustainability influences the expansion of touristic activity. For this, structural equation models have been used to measure the possible relationships between tourism growth and environmental sustainability, by using a sample of 139 countries with data from the last ten years. The work shows, in line with the position of international organizations, that the expansion of tourism translates into an environmental deterioration of the destination (risk dimension) and, furthermore, it substantiates that there are specific variables connected to environmental sustainability (regulatory dimension) that contribute to greater tourism growth, so that the relationship between tourism and environmental sustainability is bidirectional. Based on these results, stakeholders in a tourist destination should commit to greater compliance with environmental regulations as it translates into growth of touristic activity, as well as to limiting the risk factors that said activity represents for the environment and its potential for future growth.
•Thirty years after the Brundtland Report the debate on sustainable tourism is current.•Sustainability is considered a key element for touristic competitiveness.•There has been an effort to show how sustainability contributes to tourism growth.•An improvement in sustainability contributes, partially, to the growth of tourism.•Stakeholders should work towards environmental sustainability.
This article analyzes the perception of the population of Mineral de Pozos regarding the “Magical Towns” programme as an instrument of local development. The data were analyzed through a model of ...structural equations by the partial least square’s method (PLS-SEM). The identified variables suggest that people perceive an improvement in the economic dimension of the development of this locality. Therefore, we conclude that there is a direct impact of this Program on the perceived improvement of living conditions in this Magical Town.
Although small firms in tourism have featured on the agendas of policy-makers for several decades, academic interest over the same period has fluctuated. Certainly the flurry of activity that ...occurred during the early 1990s became a steady flow of somewhat fragmented output rather than the ambitious and coherent programme of research that was anticipated at the time. The paper traces progress in this field by reviewing inter-, multi- and disciplinary studies that contribute to current understanding of small firms in tourism and how this understanding articulates with wider debates within tourism studies. In so doing, it challenges some conventional wisdom and provides an agenda for future research.
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