Normal No More: The Future of Tourism Planning Post-Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 literally stopped the recent unprecedented tourism growth in its tracks with airline groundings, restaurant closures, business suspensions, hotel evacuations, and mandatory travel bans. What has come in the aftermath is a realization that tourism will see shifts in employment styles and function, pricing, customer behaviors, and successful products due to new desires among travelers for alternate tourism experiences that provide authentic, low-density settings while ensuring public health and safety. This is of particular importance to Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) due to their high dependence on tourism for economic stimulation and quality of life. This chapter presents findings from a survey of 30 resort tourism sites across the United States to highlight the impacts of COVID-19 on general operations, employee and customer relations, and coping strategies during the pandemic. Additionally, this chapter draws on other recent COVID-19 research to summarize significant impacts to tourism during the pandemic with a particular focus on how this will impact SIDS. Finally, this chapter presents a series of new navigational aids for SIDS to provide guidance for tourism planning and management among these unique and sensitive island nations.

Citation

Carroll, J. (2022), "Normal No More: The Future of Tourism Planning Post-Pandemic", Bethell-Bennett, I., Rolle, S.A., Minnis, J. and Okumus, F. (Ed.) Pandemics, Disasters, Sustainability, Tourism, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 211-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-105-420221014