TOURISM INDUSTRY AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: IMPACT AND CONSEQUENCES
The study aims to explore the relationship between the pandemic and the tourism industry. The emergence of infectious diseases is one of the consequences of tourism and mobility of citizens. The article examines the scientific research of foreign authors on the impact of epidemiological diseases on the tourism industry. The pricing strategies of travel companies caused by the policy of curbing the spread of coronavirus infection are analyzed. The authors cite some forms of adaptation of the tourism industry to the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic (in such countries as Costa Rica, Jamaica, the Republic of Fiji, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Japan, the UAE, China). A statistical analysis of the tourism development in the Russian Federation (the number of incoming and outgoing tourists, the number of hotels and similar accommodation facilities) was carried out. The COVID-19 pandemic has reoriented the outbound tourist flow to domestic destinations. The advantages of developing domestic trips in comparison with international ones regarding their role in the economic development of regions are presented. The pandemic has led to an inevitable surge in the use of digital technologies due to the norms of social distancing and nationwide restrictions. One of the most popular forms of technological applications in the tourism industry is virtual reality. The use of virtual reality can contribute to the creation of a new, more sustainable model of tourism. The article presents four scenarios for the recovery of world tourism, developed by the McKinsey Global Institute and the Oxford Institute of Economic Policy (Oxford Economics). The authors identified priority areas of transformation of the tourism industry in the post-pandemic period, including at the technological level.
Keywords: tourism, COVID-19, virtual reality, domestic travel, pricing, crisis, pandemic, tourist.
Highlights:
♦ as a result of the analysis of scientific articles by foreign authors, the negative impact of epidemiological diseases on the tourism industry has been revealed;
♦ examples of adaptation of the tourism industry to the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic include the following: Costa Rica - 16 health and hygiene protocols, postponement of holidays, including Monday; Jamaica - a policy aimed at preventing bankruptcy and supporting jobs in the tourism sector, discounts on domestic trips; the Republic of Fiji - the Blue Lanes project; Finland -the "100 Reasons to go to Finland" campaign; Greece - the "Greece from Home" online platform; Iceland - tourist vouchers; Israel - online virtual tours to places and attractions; Japan - subsidies worth more than 10 billion US dollars; UAE - Emirates airline introduced thermal screening of all passengers; China - kiosks using facial recognition;
♦ statistical analysis of the tourism sector in the Russian Federation showed a sharp drop in outbound (3.6 times) and inbound (3.8 times) tourist flows (in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of about 902 hotels and similar accommodation facilities);
♦ in connection with the closure of borders, the demand for domestic tourism has increased, which, in turn, contributes to the economic development of the country and regions and solves the problem of seasonality of Russian tourism;
♦ the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an inevitable surge in the use of digital technologies due to social distancing norms and nationwide restrictions;
♦ the coronavirus infection has provided an opportunity for the tourism business to transform, among the priority areas of the industry`s recovery are quality improvement, product diversion, demand for domestic travel, increased sustainability, digitalization, ecologization and partnership.
Anastasia G. Sarafanova, Researcher at the Department of Recreational Geography and Tourism.; Alexander A. Sarafanov, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Researcher at the Department of Recreational Geography and Tourism. - Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography