What it was said that would change, compared to what actually changed.
A new opportunity, starting over, doing things right, a new form of tourism… Those were some of the most heard phrases at the beginning of the pandemic when a paradigm shift was predicted, towards a more sustainable tourism model. Today, after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be said that tourism in much of the world, left behind its standstill state and a new era for travel has begun. But, has tourism as we knew it really changed?.
In 2020, Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said that “The tourist mentality has changed quite a lot. It is clear that people prefer isolated places where there is no concentration of tourists, which will affect the structure of tourism”; however, the data and visitor numbers of the main European tourist cities demonstrate the opposite.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, in July 2022 Catalonia received 2,470,429 visitors, surpassing the amount recorded in the same month of 2019 when it received 2,436,525. While these numbers are encouraging for the economic sector, they do not align with the intentions of a new, less overcrowded, and sustainable tourism. Another example is the Balearic Islands, which also in the month of July 2022 recorded a number of 2,273,064 tourists, very similar to the figures for the same month of 2019, which were 2,344,094.
Several aspects, including the boom in cheap flights and hotels, and other low-cost options, are taking us back to where we started from, a tourism model that has prioritized quantity over social and environmental sustainability. The big uncertainty now is whether this effect will last over time, or whether it is the result of the exploding demand restrained during the pandemic.
And although it seems that the demand has a greater interest in traveling in a more sustainable way, and tourism products and services providers are becoming more aware that sustainability is no longer an option, the truth is that so far, the data and news show that although tourism is recovering, the model has not changed. Overcrowding continues generating discomfort among residents, airlines and airports are about to recover pre-COVID air traffic, the tourism offer has not diversified enough and seasonality continue to be a problem in most tourism destinations.
However, not everything is negative. The pandemic has brought with it an accelerated process of digitalization. According to the Deep Digital Journey, the tourism and leisure sector is the best positioned, with 30% of companies in a fully evolved state of digital transformation.
Digitalization has more benefits than just improving the user experience, the immediate availability of information, or the empowerment of tourists; digital transformation leads to an increase in tourism accessibility, promotes the collaborative economy, accelerates processes such as the automation of reservations, reduces costs, and makes a great contribution to sustainability by reducing, for example, the use of tons of paper per year worldwide.
The pandemic is still not over and many countries continue with restrictions, and although travel and tourism are being reactivated, it seems that things have not changed much, and what we thought was a new opportunity to create a more responsible tourism, is remaining a mere illusion.
At Pax#, at the beginning of the pandemic, we noticed a growing interest in sustainability projects, but this is not enough to generate a disruptive change in the tourism model and in our way of traveling. We firmly believe that sustainability is the way forward, and we have the experience, the knowledge, and an expert team willing to advise and support you on this path, shall we start?.
