Pandemics, tourism and global change: a rapid assessment of COVID-19 [Summary]

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic should lead to a critical reconsideration of the global volume growth model for tourism, for interrelated reasons of risks incurred in global travel as well as the sector’s contribution to climate change. Tourism ‘success’ has been historically defined by virtually all tourism organizations - UNWTO, ICAO, CLIA, or WTTC - as growth in tourism numbers. Even though growth lobbyists regularly pay lip service to climate change and the SDGs, there is no evidence-based strategy for climate change mitigation, and an overall silence regarding pandemic and other risks the global tourism system imposes on itself and the global economy (Scott et al., 2019). Volume growth agendas appear to be driven by individuals and large businesses profiting from such growth models. Specifically, this includes industries represented by ICAO, CLIA, or WTTC, the platform economy (e.g. Booking and AirBnB), aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus, national DMOs, and individual large tourism corporations. The UNWTO is a notable case of a supranational organization that is responsible for advancing the SDGs in their entirety, yet in its current form represents a growth advocacy platform (Gössling et al., 2016; Hall, 2019).