In 2021 June, the UK government published ‘the Tourism Recovery Plan’ to support the tourism sector, one of the hardest hit sectors by COVID-19 pandemic. This plan replaces the previous ‘the Tourism Sector Deal’, instead, it attempts to rebuild a ‘more resilient, innovative, sustainable, productive and accessible tourism sector’.
Despite the UK government providing over £25 billion in the support of the tourism, hospitality and leisure sectors, it is noted that,
“Oxford Economics does not predict tourism in the UK to return in full to 2019 levels of volume and expenditure until 2025. There are a wide range of factors influencing this, such as the pace of vaccine rollout in inbound markets, the impact of social distancing on capacity, the impact of the pandemic on consumers’ discretionary spending power, the threat of potential variants of concern emerging and lingering doubts amongst consumers about their own safety when travelling” (p.6).
This forecast shows the vulnerability of the tourism sector and its macro- and micro- challenges that are more complicated than a sector itself.
From an academic perspective, scholars often predict tourism recovery from a quantitative way, such as Scenario-based Delphi adjustment approach (Zhang et al., 2021), and Generalized additive model (Fotiadis, et al., 2021). Other scholars (Reddy et al., 2020) put tourism recovery in the context of crisis management to better understand tourism resilience and vulnerability.
From an industrial perspective, the City of London published the COVID-19 supplement document. It highlights the role of cultural heritage in the development of London as an innovative, business-welcoming, and leisure visitor destination.
References
Fotiadis, A., Polyzos, S. & Huan, T.C. (2021). The good, the bad and the ugly on COVID-19 tourism recovery. Annals of Tourism Research, 87, 103117.
Reddy, M.V., Boyd, S.W., Nica, M. (2020). Towards a post-conflict tourism recovery framework. Annals of Tourism Research, 84, 102940.
Zhang, H., Song, H., Wen, L., & Liu, C. (2021). Forecasting tourism recovery amid COVID-19. Annals of Tourism Research, 87, 103149.