Exploring Current Issues in Tourism and Post-COVID Implications

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the current issues facing the tourism industry, with a particular focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent post-COVID recovery. It begins by defining the concept and theories of tourism, including domestic, inbound, and outbound tourism, as well as Butler's Model of tourism resort evolution. The report then identifies current issues such as taxation, fraud, the COVID-19 pandemic, international conflicts, natural calamities, tough competition, social media reputation, and government inaction. It further explores the significant impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry, including reduced revenue, job losses, event cancellations, and a decline in customer trust. Finally, the report touches on the post-COVID impact, highlighting potential shifts in consumer behavior and industry strategies. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Current Issues In Tourism
and their impact on Post
COVID

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
Concept and theories of tourism..................................................................................................3
Current issue of tourism...............................................................................................................5
Impact of COVID on tourism......................................................................................................7
Post COVID impact on tourism...................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. It is service providing
industry which makes sure to provide best services to customers. Different companies in this
industry work differently according to their strategies and objectives. There are various kinds of
issues faced by tourism company like high taxes, security issues, high maintenance of hotels,
searching customers globally and convincing them to use their services and many others. It is
essential to analyse current trends and customer’s behaviour in this industry to get higher success
in growth. Advanced technology also plays an essential role in the development of hospitality
sector (Öberg, 2021). Covid 19 pandemic impacted badly upon hospitality industry because
every company restricted to the entry of any outsider to break the chain of this disease. During
this period traveller spends their time at home. There is a major fall down in the growth and
revenue earned by hospitality sector during Covid 19. The following file covers concept and
theories of tourism, current issues of tourism industry, impact of Covid 19 pandemic on tourism
industry and condition of tourism industry after Covid 19 pandemic (Post covid).
Concept and theories of tourism
Travelling activities is done for a particular purpose like having official meetings,
spending weekends for fun and many others. Travellers are the customers of hospitality industry
which comprises of many sectors like food and beverages sector, accommodations, events and
many more. Tourism is the activities which concern to travel from one place to another for
different purposes. Tourism can be defined to travel from one country to other country and it also
includes travelling within a single country. The customer in this industry is called visitors or
guest for the hotels. There are three types of tourism which is defined below-
 Domestic tourism- It includes all those travelling activities of a traveller which take
place within their home country. For example in case UK customer travels all tourism
places of UK itself and stays in hotels and enjoy the weekend within UK then it is a
domestic tourism. Most of the hotels provide discounts for their domestic customers
(Chica, and et.al., 2021).
 Inbound tourism- It includes all those activities which is performed by a visitor of
outside country who visited in a country for specific purpose. These type of visitors are

non residential of that country. For example in case Indian family visited to UK for
spending their vacation then it is called inbound tourism for UK.
 Outbound tourism- It includes all activities which are done by a residential customer at
outside the country. When an individual of a country visited to other place for travelling
purpose then it is outbound tourism for traveller’s country. It can be understood easily
with an example. For example a person from UK travels to Australia for business
meeting then he is performing outbound tourism activities for UK.
Tourism products-
Tourism industry are having various kind of products which are categorized below-
 Accommodation- It include guest house, self catering, bed, home stay, camping and
many more.
 Hospitality- It includes food and beverages, cafe, clubs and etc.
 Transport services- It is the service by which a traveller should travel from one country
to another. It includes roads, water, air, rail and few more.
Theories of Tourism-
There are various kinds of models and theories of tourism and few of them are explained below-
Butler’s Model- The cycle of evolution of tourism resort:
This model is also called Butler’s development cyclic model which states that tourism carrying
capacity and sustainability is essential (Ou and Wong, 2020). It is essential that hospitality sector
activities will be managed properly because a little mistake to provide better facility to customer
will provide a big loss to hotel like low brand image. This model has 6 stages which state the
evolution of tourism resort. The stages of this model are explained below-
1. The exploration stage- Here, it considers a small number of tourists which are based on
primary tourism attraction. In this stage hotels did not pay must attention to their local
residential.
2. The involvement stage- Here, local residential get involvement in tourism activities of a
country. Guest houses are made in this stage. Hotel owners put pressure on government
to develop transpiration condition for travellers.
3. The development stage- In these stage hotels and other sectors in hospitality industry
pay attention on advertising their products and services. During this time local residential

are getting disappointed because they noticed a physical change in their living areas by
making hotels for tourism.
4. The consolidation stage- This stage notices that tourism sector reduces the speed of their
development and number of tourisms exceeds the local population. The concept of
franchising of hotels and chains are made for further growth.
5. The stagnation stage- This is the stage where the number of tourism have reached at its
peak (Kim, and et.al., 2021). On the other hand it is causing social and environmental
problem. Artificial tourism attraction is having more popularity then natural attraction.
6. The declining scenario- Here, old tourism techniques are unable to compete with new
and complex attractions of tourism. Holidays makers are replaced by weekend trippers.
Hotels which did not receive any client become home for retirees.
Hence from the above information it is evaluated that tourism industry is one of the most
complex industry which is having various kinds’ products and services. Their main aim is to gain
the trust of customers by providing them facilities according to their needs and wants. Tourism is
related to travelling from one place to another whether it is country to country or state to state.
There is a misinterpreted definition of tourism concept that it includes only those activities which
took place to travel from one country to another. It also includes taking facilities within a small
town. For example in case a individual travel few kilometres to attend a meeting at hotel near
their residential area then also it is called a tourism activity. It is also evaluated that Butler model
of tourism is helpful to understand the evaluation of tourism industry within sir stages.
Current issue of tourism
Tourism industry is one of the most customer centric industries where customers are
treated as king of market. Their whole success depends on customer’s satisfaction (Szymanski,
and et.al., 2020). If their customers are satisfied then they can measure their success in positive
way but if their customers are dissatisfied then they are unable to achieve their objective due to
irrelevant or improper services. There are various kind of issues which is faced by tourism
industry and few of the current issues are explained below-
Taxation issues- Government of most of the countries charge heavy taxes on hotels and
restaurants. This is a big issue for them; they have to pay a large amount of their earning to
government treasury. Due to this reason many hotels are unable to develop their infrastructure

properly. This is also the reason of shut down of tourism activities for small hotels and
restaurants.
Increase in fraud activities- In today’s recent time most of the fraud activities are done
on the name of travelling and tourism industries. Many fraud travelling agencies are performing
unlawful activities which further refuse customers to trust the real and original facilities (Martín-
González, and et.al., 2020). Due to increase in fraud activities in this industry most of the clients
refuses to trust their tourism industry and they refuses to take travelling facilities.
Covid 19 Pandemic- This pandemic is one of the biggest issues for travelling industry as
it restricts the tourism activity to conduct properly. Due to pandemic, countries did not allow any
outsiders to enter their country which almost decline 80% business of tourism industry.
Conflicts between neighbouring countries- Most of the neighbouring countries are
restricted entries of customers in their country. Due to this reason hotels losses many loyal
customers which are there in another country.
Natural calamities- As it is seen that most of the hotels and restaurants, resorts are
placed near a natural environment like near seas, mountains and many others. Natural calamities
like flood, Tsunami, earthquakes and few more destroy the business of some travelling
restaurants due to their hazardous effects. These natural calamities destroy the building of resorts
and even take away human life (Russell, and et.al., 2021).
Tough competition- There is a tough competition in this industry. Many resorts and
hotels gain competitive advantage by their technological factors and their brand image due to
which they are able to attract more and more customers. Basically large earning hotels and
international resorts are able to take this advantage and due to them small and local hotels are
moving out of the industry.
Social media reputation- Most of the competitors spread wrong humours related to
specific hotel or travelling activity which impacts badly upon them. As the technology is
developing day by day wrong interpreted information are getting powerful to reach to end
customers. Social media is a platform where anyone can share their opinion. Hence, due to this
bloggers which is a trendy concept recently are sharing wrong information on their social media
accounts and the customers of travelling industry gets easily influenced with them (Irimiás and
Mitev, 2020).

Inactive government and delay in their decisions- Most of the travelling industry in a
specific country are facing issues of improper route for attracting new travellers from different
places. They complaints to their representative government to develop the routs as soon as
possible because it is becoming a obstacle in the growth of their hotels and resorts
(Samarasekera, and et.al., 2020). Inactive government did not pay much attention and delays in
making any decision for the development of travelling industry.
Hence from the above information it is evaluated that there are various kind of issues
within tourism industry which is essential for them to focus and get it solved as soon as possible.
It is essential for every sector in this industry to analyse their present environment to recognise
any impact of external environment are there in their resorts or not. Scanning environment on
regular basis helps to identify threats and weaknesses which can be eliminated by taking some
strong strategies.
Impact of COVID on tourism
Covid 19 pandemic impacts upon whole world and it causes decline in the economical
condition of almost every country. Covid pandemic majorly impacted tourism industry. During
this pandemic no economy is allowing travelling activities to break the chain of this pandemic.
Due to this reason resorts and restaurants are having no customers and due to this their revenue
earning rate declines. Most of the tourism reduces their staff because they are unable to provide
them salaries die to their reduced revenue. Hence, most of the employees faces jobless situation.
Customers are focusing more on healthy diets due to which they refuses to take services of food
and beverages industry (Webster, and et.al., 2020). Many popular sports events like Olympics’
and many others get cancelled due to travelling restrictions caused by Covid. Cancellation of this
type of events provides almost 58-78% loss to tourism industry at worldwide level. Due to such
events many travels travel from one place to another and stay for longer period of time to enjoy
their favourite events. Most of the tourism companies promote their company during this time to
grow well. Customers are losing their trust on the quality of services offered by food and
beverages companies. During this pandemic most of the customers prefer to eat healthy food and
drink those drinks which boost up their immune system. Due to their distrust on food and
beverages provided by hotels they started cooking their favourite foods at home and refuse to
take hotel facilities. Due to declining customers day by day in this pandemic, most of the resorts
are supposed to waste their essential resources without getting any profit with it. Most of the

small hotels and restaurants shut down their business and leave the industry. Hotels and resorts
are having heavy taxes from government side and revenues are almost at least level in this
pandemic. Hence, they have no other option to exit the industry (Walker and Yoo, 2021). Hotel
owners and staff get demotivated and their skills and talents are getting underrated as compared
to their actual capabilities. Another big issue is that customers neglect to focus on travelling
benefits. It is essential to put lockdown restrictions on the population of country and due to
lockdowns and curfews other businesses also get impacted. Somehow other businesses get
attached to tourism industry. Hence, indirectly tourism also gets worst impact. For example,
during lockdowns marriages get cancelled, Hollywood shooting of movies gets cancelled and
many more. Hollywood shooting takes places in various part of world and they are supposed to
travel from one country to another with their whole team. Due to cancellation of such shooting
travelling industry get impacted.
Hence, from the above information it is evaluated that Covid 19 pandemic has worst impact upon
hospitality sector by eliminating many jobs and trust of customers from this industry. Due to
cancelation of world famous events impact promotional activities of resorts and restaurants.
Post COVID impact on tourism
After noticing the impacts of Covid on tourism industry most of the leaders of this industry
tries to make new strategies to build a strong network again after completion of the period of
lockdown (Yağcı, and et.al., 2021). They again try to gain the trust of their customers and earn
well. Most of the hotels and restaurants improved the facilities and services at their hotels to
attract more customers. They also invest high upon research and development department to
analyse which marketing condition and current growth trend will help them to grow well. They
adopt new technologies which will help them to reduce their efforts. In case of food and
beverages sector they allow high discount rates on the dishes and beverages which they prepare
for customers so that they can gain their lifetime loyalty. They charge only that much amount
which will be covered the cost incurred to prepare the food because recently their aim is to build
a strong brand image first then earn profit. Brand image can be gained by having more customer
satisfaction (Dube, and et.al., 2021). For making their customers more satisfied they also focuses
to prepare all dishes with hygienic ways because after Covid 19 pandemic most of the customers
have become health conscious and this pandemic forces population of any economy to remain
healthy. Hence, today customer will prefer more healthy food. Due to this the food and

beverages sector changes their menu and reframe it with healthy dishes which develop immune
system of their customers. After Covid, tourism industry invested lot of money in promoting the
companies (Baris and Pelizzo, 2020). Most of the hotels and restaurants adopt new and advanced
ways of promoting their business. Digitalization plays an essential role in development of
economy after Covid. Hence, most of the resorts and hotels adopt online ways to deliver their
services. At recent time still very few customers are required to go out of their house and enjoy
their favourite meal. Hence, they order online and enjoy it while staying at their home. It will be
crucial to support tourism recovery. It has been observed that outlook for tourism economy
remains uncertain in terms of extraordinary manner. Business and travel confidence are the two
parameters which have taken a big hit. Clarity on epidemiological criteria, clear communication
and well-designed information policy are important parameters (Dimitrios, and et.al., 2020). To
rise up the economical condition of countries most of the government reduces the tax of their
hospitality sector and provide easy way loans to various kinds of resorts and hotels so that they
can again develop their business with full potential. After the pandemic, domestic tourism gets
promoted at its peak. Still many countries are having tourism restrictions to allow outer country
tourist travel in their localities. Hence, most of the hotels mainly focus to provide their best
facilities to their residential customers which are getting ignored before Covid 19.

CONCLUSION
From the above information it is concluded that tourism industry is one of the fastest
growing industry in gaining customers satisfaction. It is a service providing industry hence, they
are supposed to gain the trust of their customers by providing g them best facilities according to
their needs and wants. There are various kinds of current trends in this industry. Companies are
required to take benefits from all these trends by adopting them sooner. Tourism specifically
covers all activities which are done for a specific purpose travelling like attending events,
business meetings and many others. There are three major types or tourism which is domestic
tourism, inbound tourism and outbound tourism. Various types is services are served in this
industry like food and beverages serve food dishes, accommodation services serve staying
facilities like bed, guest house and many more. There are various kinds of issues in tourism
industries like cause of natural calamities, high taxes, wrong reputation interpretation on social
media and many more. One of the biggest issues which are impacted worst on their revenue
earning rate is due to Covid 19 pandemic. It changes the whole environment of Tourism
industry.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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COVID-19 data. World Affairs, 183(3), pp.216-234.
Chica, and et.al., 2021. A collective risk dilemma for tourism restrictions under the COVID-19
context. Scientific Reports, 11(1), pp.1-12.
Dimitrios, and et.al., 2020. Strategic Management in the Hotel Industry: Proposed Strategic
Practices to Recover from COVID-19 Global Crisis. Academic Journal of
Interdisciplinary Studies, 9(6), pp.130-130.
Dube, and et.al., 2021. COVID-19 pandemic and prospects for recovery of the global aviation
industry. Journal of Air Transport Management, 92, p.102022.
Irimiás, A. R. and Mitev, A. Z., 2020. Lockdown captivity: the wish to break out and
travel. Current Issues in Tourism, pp.1-4.
Kim, and et.al., 2021. Understanding student acceptance of online learning systems in higher
education: Application of social psychology theories with consideration of user
innovativeness. Sustainability, 13(2), p.896.
Martín-González, and et.al., 2020. The Covid-19 Crisis and the ‘new’Normality of Surf Tourism
in Cape Town, South Africa.
Öberg, C., 2021. Conflicting logics for crisis management in tourism. Journal of Tourism
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Ou, J. and Wong, I. A., 2020. Strategic crisis response through changing message frames: a case
of airline corporations. Current Issues in Tourism, pp.1-15.
Russell, and et.al., 2021. Effect of internationally imported cases on internal spread of COVID-
19: a mathematical modelling study. The Lancet Public Health, 6(1), pp.e12-e20.
Samarasekera, and et.al., 2020. Response and lessons learnt managing the COVID-19 crisis by
School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. MedEdPublish, 9.
Szymanski, and et.al., 2020. Will the COVID-19 pandemic change national security and
healthcare in the spectrum of cardiovascular disease?. Current Problems in
Cardiology, 45(9), p.100645.
Walker, T. B. and Yoo, K. I., 2021. Assessing The Vulnerability Of Tourism In Caribbean
Small Islands–A Review Of COVID-19 Impacts On Antigua And Barbuda. Danish
University Colleges, p.23.
Webster, and et.al., 2020. Hotels hurting horrifically but hopeful: A case study of the
Indianapolis hotel industry. Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing
(JTHSM), 6(3), pp.54-58.
Yağcı, and et.al., 2021. Effect of Perceived Risk on Tourists’ Behavioural Intentions Post
COVID-19 in Turkey. In Tourism Destination Management in a Post-Pandemic
Context. Emerald Publishing Limited.

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