The Future of Post-Pandemic Tourism and Hospitality Industry: A Comprehensive Assessment

Abstract

Episodic events such as epidemics, natural disasters, civil strife and economic crises may have adverse impacts on tourism development in the short or long term (Zeng et al., Curr Issue Tour 8(4):306–322, 2005). The COVID-19 crisis, which has been on the agenda for the last one and a half year, has seriously affected not only the tourism sector, but all the sectors in the world; and the economic, social, and psychological dimensions of the pandemic have appeared. The starting point of this study is to make predictions regarding what kind of a transformation will be caused, in the future, by the COVID-19 pandemic that we are going through. In the study, changes that may be encountered in the tourism and hospitality industry after COVID-19 are discussed with examples both in a holistic sense and as specific to sub-sectors. In this context, the following issues appear to be important in shaping the future of the industry: post-pandemic sustainability, digitalization and technology in the tourism, hospitality and travel industry, adaptation to the new global economic change, rise in rural/eco-tourism activities, increase in travels to local regions, development of resilience strategies by tourism establishments, the importance and necessity of revenue and yield management for each tourism business, and requirement of digital health and/or vaccine passports for travels. © 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.