For many years, observers have been predicting that crises - caused for example by climate change or geopolitical turmoils - will be the dominant factor for our travel decisions. This was a long-standing trend, but Corona turned this prognosis into reality from one day to another.
The future is now! For most of us, regardless if we are working in tourism or just love travelling, it sounds like a nightmare, that the current present should already be the new future. And it is not! Because we still have it in our hands to shape this future and to transform tourism! But we cannot wait until tomorrow. We have to start now.
It is more than obvious that most parts of the tourism industry, which for ten years had seen nothing but growth, has failed to use this good years to develop and implement crisis-proof and really sustainable business models. In our overview article on resilience and the reports from India and Iran, we show how prepared some communities are already to cope with various crises and what tourism industry and destinations around the world could learn from them. Our article about South Africa shows, how accomodation providers do not resignate, but try to master the crisis in a way, that also contributes to broader well-being. And while countries such as Germany use billions of Euros to save large corporations, we describe how these recovery programs must be designed if they should not only serve as rescue packages, but become a future program on the longer run.
The summer vacations in Europe are just around the corner. We hope that our articles on virtual trips and on the end of the global travel warnings will give you inspirations - especially if you canceled a long planned and awaited trip to the Global South.
