tourism industry article

The future of tourism: Bridging the labor gap, enhancing customer experience

As travel resumes and builds momentum, it’s becoming clear that tourism is resilient—there is an enduring desire to travel. Against all odds, international tourism rebounded in 2022: visitor numbers to Europe and the Middle East climbed to around 80 percent of 2019 levels, and the Americas recovered about 65 percent of prepandemic visitors 1 “Tourism set to return to pre-pandemic levels in some regions in 2023,” United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), January 17, 2023. —a number made more significant because it was reached without travelers from China, which had the world’s largest outbound travel market before the pandemic. 2 “ Outlook for China tourism 2023: Light at the end of the tunnel ,” McKinsey, May 9, 2023.

Recovery and growth are likely to continue. According to estimates from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for 2023, international tourist arrivals could reach 80 to 95 percent of prepandemic levels depending on the extent of the economic slowdown, travel recovery in Asia–Pacific, and geopolitical tensions, among other factors. 3 “Tourism set to return to pre-pandemic levels in some regions in 2023,” United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), January 17, 2023. Similarly, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) forecasts that by the end of 2023, nearly half of the 185 countries in which the organization conducts research will have either recovered to prepandemic levels or be within 95 percent of full recovery. 4 “Global travel and tourism catapults into 2023 says WTTC,” World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), April 26, 2023.

Longer-term forecasts also point to optimism for the decade ahead. Travel and tourism GDP is predicted to grow, on average, at 5.8 percent a year between 2022 and 2032, outpacing the growth of the overall economy at an expected 2.7 percent a year. 5 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 , WTTC, August 2022.

So, is it all systems go for travel and tourism? Not really. The industry continues to face a prolonged and widespread labor shortage. After losing 62 million travel and tourism jobs in 2020, labor supply and demand remain out of balance. 6 “WTTC research reveals Travel & Tourism’s slow recovery is hitting jobs and growth worldwide,” World Travel & Tourism Council, October 6, 2021. Today, in the European Union, 11 percent of tourism jobs are likely to go unfilled; in the United States, that figure is 7 percent. 7 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 : Staff shortages, WTTC, August 2022.

There has been an exodus of tourism staff, particularly from customer-facing roles, to other sectors, and there is no sign that the industry will be able to bring all these people back. 8 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 : Staff shortages, WTTC, August 2022. Hotels, restaurants, cruises, airports, and airlines face staff shortages that can translate into operational, reputational, and financial difficulties. If unaddressed, these shortages may constrain the industry’s growth trajectory.

The current labor shortage may have its roots in factors related to the nature of work in the industry. Chronic workplace challenges, coupled with the effects of COVID-19, have culminated in an industry struggling to rebuild its workforce. Generally, tourism-related jobs are largely informal, partly due to high seasonality and weak regulation. And conditions such as excessively long working hours, low wages, a high turnover rate, and a lack of social protection tend to be most pronounced in an informal economy. Additionally, shift work, night work, and temporary or part-time employment are common in tourism.

The industry may need to revisit some fundamentals to build a far more sustainable future: either make the industry more attractive to talent (and put conditions in place to retain staff for longer periods) or improve products, services, and processes so that they complement existing staffing needs or solve existing pain points.

One solution could be to build a workforce with the mix of digital and interpersonal skills needed to keep up with travelers’ fast-changing requirements. The industry could make the most of available technology to provide customers with a digitally enhanced experience, resolve staff shortages, and improve working conditions.

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Complementing concierges with chatbots.

The pace of technological change has redefined customer expectations. Technology-driven services are often at customers’ fingertips, with no queues or waiting times. By contrast, the airport and airline disruption widely reported in the press over the summer of 2022 points to customers not receiving this same level of digital innovation when traveling.

Imagine the following travel experience: it’s 2035 and you start your long-awaited honeymoon to a tropical island. A virtual tour operator and a destination travel specialist booked your trip for you; you connected via videoconference to make your plans. Your itinerary was chosen with the support of generative AI , which analyzed your preferences, recommended personalized travel packages, and made real-time adjustments based on your feedback.

Before leaving home, you check in online and QR code your luggage. You travel to the airport by self-driving cab. After dropping off your luggage at the self-service counter, you pass through security and the biometric check. You access the premier lounge with the QR code on the airline’s loyalty card and help yourself to a glass of wine and a sandwich. After your flight, a prebooked, self-driving cab takes you to the resort. No need to check in—that was completed online ahead of time (including picking your room and making sure that the hotel’s virtual concierge arranged for red roses and a bottle of champagne to be delivered).

While your luggage is brought to the room by a baggage robot, your personal digital concierge presents the honeymoon itinerary with all the requested bookings. For the romantic dinner on the first night, you order your food via the restaurant app on the table and settle the bill likewise. So far, you’ve had very little human interaction. But at dinner, the sommelier chats with you in person about the wine. The next day, your sightseeing is made easier by the hotel app and digital guide—and you don’t get lost! With the aid of holographic technology, the virtual tour guide brings historical figures to life and takes your sightseeing experience to a whole new level. Then, as arranged, a local citizen meets you and takes you to their home to enjoy a local family dinner. The trip is seamless, there are no holdups or snags.

This scenario features less human interaction than a traditional trip—but it flows smoothly due to the underlying technology. The human interactions that do take place are authentic, meaningful, and add a special touch to the experience. This may be a far-fetched example, but the essence of the scenario is clear: use technology to ease typical travel pain points such as queues, misunderstandings, or misinformation, and elevate the quality of human interaction.

Travel with less human interaction may be considered a disruptive idea, as many travelers rely on and enjoy the human connection, the “service with a smile.” This will always be the case, but perhaps the time is right to think about bringing a digital experience into the mix. The industry may not need to depend exclusively on human beings to serve its customers. Perhaps the future of travel is physical, but digitally enhanced (and with a smile!).

Digital solutions are on the rise and can help bridge the labor gap

Digital innovation is improving customer experience across multiple industries. Car-sharing apps have overcome service-counter waiting times and endless paperwork that travelers traditionally had to cope with when renting a car. The same applies to time-consuming hotel check-in, check-out, and payment processes that can annoy weary customers. These pain points can be removed. For instance, in China, the Huazhu Hotels Group installed self-check-in kiosks that enable guests to check in or out in under 30 seconds. 9 “Huazhu Group targets lifestyle market opportunities,” ChinaTravelNews, May 27, 2021.

Technology meets hospitality

In 2019, Alibaba opened its FlyZoo Hotel in Huangzhou, described as a “290-room ultra-modern boutique, where technology meets hospitality.” 1 “Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a hotel run almost entirely by robots that can serve food and fetch toiletries—take a look inside,” Business Insider, October 21, 2019; “FlyZoo Hotel: The hotel of the future or just more technology hype?,” Hotel Technology News, March 2019. The hotel was the first of its kind that instead of relying on traditional check-in and key card processes, allowed guests to manage reservations and make payments entirely from a mobile app, to check-in using self-service kiosks, and enter their rooms using facial-recognition technology.

The hotel is run almost entirely by robots that serve food and fetch toiletries and other sundries as needed. Each guest room has a voice-activated smart assistant to help guests with a variety of tasks, from adjusting the temperature, lights, curtains, and the TV to playing music and answering simple questions about the hotel and surroundings.

The hotel was developed by the company’s online travel platform, Fliggy, in tandem with Alibaba’s AI Labs and Alibaba Cloud technology with the goal of “leveraging cutting-edge tech to help transform the hospitality industry, one that keeps the sector current with the digital era we’re living in,” according to the company.

Adoption of some digitally enhanced services was accelerated during the pandemic in the quest for safer, contactless solutions. During the Winter Olympics in Beijing, a restaurant designed to keep physical contact to a minimum used a track system on the ceiling to deliver meals directly from the kitchen to the table. 10 “This Beijing Winter Games restaurant uses ceiling-based tracks,” Trendhunter, January 26, 2022. Customers around the world have become familiar with restaurants using apps to display menus, take orders, and accept payment, as well as hotels using robots to deliver luggage and room service (see sidebar “Technology meets hospitality”). Similarly, theme parks, cinemas, stadiums, and concert halls are deploying digital solutions such as facial recognition to optimize entrance control. Shanghai Disneyland, for example, offers annual pass holders the option to choose facial recognition to facilitate park entry. 11 “Facial recognition park entry,” Shanghai Disney Resort website.

Automation and digitization can also free up staff from attending to repetitive functions that could be handled more efficiently via an app and instead reserve the human touch for roles where staff can add the most value. For instance, technology can help customer-facing staff to provide a more personalized service. By accessing data analytics, frontline staff can have guests’ details and preferences at their fingertips. A trainee can become an experienced concierge in a short time, with the help of technology.

Apps and in-room tech: Unused market potential

According to Skift Research calculations, total revenue generated by guest apps and in-room technology in 2019 was approximately $293 million, including proprietary apps by hotel brands as well as third-party vendors. 1 “Hotel tech benchmark: Guest-facing technology 2022,” Skift Research, November 2022. The relatively low market penetration rate of this kind of tech points to around $2.4 billion in untapped revenue potential (exhibit).

Even though guest-facing technology is available—the kind that can facilitate contactless interactions and offer travelers convenience and personalized service—the industry is only beginning to explore its potential. A report by Skift Research shows that the hotel industry, in particular, has not tapped into tech’s potential. Only 11 percent of hotels and 25 percent of hotel rooms worldwide are supported by a hotel app or use in-room technology, and only 3 percent of hotels offer keyless entry. 12 “Hotel tech benchmark: Guest-facing technology 2022,” Skift Research, November 2022. Of the five types of technology examined (guest apps and in-room tech; virtual concierge; guest messaging and chatbots; digital check-in and kiosks; and keyless entry), all have relatively low market-penetration rates (see sidebar “Apps and in-room tech: Unused market potential”).

While apps, digitization, and new technology may be the answer to offering better customer experience, there is also the possibility that tourism may face competition from technological advances, particularly virtual experiences. Museums, attractions, and historical sites can be made interactive and, in some cases, more lifelike, through AR/VR technology that can enhance the physical travel experience by reconstructing historical places or events.

Up until now, tourism, arguably, was one of a few sectors that could not easily be replaced by tech. It was not possible to replicate the physical experience of traveling to another place. With the emerging metaverse , this might change. Travelers could potentially enjoy an event or experience from their sofa without any logistical snags, and without the commitment to traveling to another country for any length of time. For example, Google offers virtual tours of the Pyramids of Meroë in Sudan via an immersive online experience available in a range of languages. 13 Mariam Khaled Dabboussi, “Step into the Meroë pyramids with Google,” Google, May 17, 2022. And a crypto banking group, The BCB Group, has created a metaverse city that includes representations of some of the most visited destinations in the world, such as the Great Wall of China and the Statue of Liberty. According to BCB, the total cost of flights, transfers, and entry for all these landmarks would come to $7,600—while a virtual trip would cost just over $2. 14 “What impact can the Metaverse have on the travel industry?,” Middle East Economy, July 29, 2022.

The metaverse holds potential for business travel, too—the meeting, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector in particular. Participants could take part in activities in the same immersive space while connecting from anywhere, dramatically reducing travel, venue, catering, and other costs. 15 “ Tourism in the metaverse: Can travel go virtual? ,” McKinsey, May 4, 2023.

The allure and convenience of such digital experiences make offering seamless, customer-centric travel and tourism in the real world all the more pressing.

Three innovations to solve hotel staffing shortages

Is the future contactless.

Given the advances in technology, and the many digital innovations and applications that already exist, there is potential for businesses across the travel and tourism spectrum to cope with labor shortages while improving customer experience. Process automation and digitization can also add to process efficiency. Taken together, a combination of outsourcing, remote work, and digital solutions can help to retain existing staff and reduce dependency on roles that employers are struggling to fill (exhibit).

Depending on the customer service approach and direct contact need, we estimate that the travel and tourism industry would be able to cope with a structural labor shortage of around 10 to 15 percent in the long run by operating more flexibly and increasing digital and automated efficiency—while offering the remaining staff an improved total work package.

Outsourcing and remote work could also help resolve the labor shortage

While COVID-19 pushed organizations in a wide variety of sectors to embrace remote work, there are many hospitality roles that rely on direct physical services that cannot be performed remotely, such as laundry, cleaning, maintenance, and facility management. If faced with staff shortages, these roles could be outsourced to third-party professional service providers, and existing staff could be reskilled to take up new positions.

In McKinsey’s experience, the total service cost of this type of work in a typical hotel can make up 10 percent of total operating costs. Most often, these roles are not guest facing. A professional and digital-based solution might become an integrated part of a third-party service for hotels looking to outsource this type of work.

One of the lessons learned in the aftermath of COVID-19 is that many tourism employees moved to similar positions in other sectors because they were disillusioned by working conditions in the industry . Specialist multisector companies have been able to shuffle their staff away from tourism to other sectors that offer steady employment or more regular working hours compared with the long hours and seasonal nature of work in tourism.

The remaining travel and tourism staff may be looking for more flexibility or the option to work from home. This can be an effective solution for retaining employees. For example, a travel agent with specific destination expertise could work from home or be consulted on an needs basis.

In instances where remote work or outsourcing is not viable, there are other solutions that the hospitality industry can explore to improve operational effectiveness as well as employee satisfaction. A more agile staffing model  can better match available labor with peaks and troughs in daily, or even hourly, demand. This could involve combining similar roles or cross-training staff so that they can switch roles. Redesigned roles could potentially improve employee satisfaction by empowering staff to explore new career paths within the hotel’s operations. Combined roles build skills across disciplines—for example, supporting a housekeeper to train and become proficient in other maintenance areas, or a front-desk associate to build managerial skills.

Where management or ownership is shared across properties, roles could be staffed to cover a network of sites, rather than individual hotels. By applying a combination of these approaches, hotels could reduce the number of staff hours needed to keep operations running at the same standard. 16 “ Three innovations to solve hotel staffing shortages ,” McKinsey, April 3, 2023.

Taken together, operational adjustments combined with greater use of technology could provide the tourism industry with a way of overcoming staffing challenges and giving customers the seamless digitally enhanced experiences they expect in other aspects of daily life.

In an industry facing a labor shortage, there are opportunities for tech innovations that can help travel and tourism businesses do more with less, while ensuring that remaining staff are engaged and motivated to stay in the industry. For travelers, this could mean fewer friendly faces, but more meaningful experiences and interactions.

Urs Binggeli is a senior expert in McKinsey’s Zurich office, Zi Chen is a capabilities and insights specialist in the Shanghai office, Steffen Köpke is a capabilities and insights expert in the Düsseldorf office, and Jackey Yu is a partner in the Hong Kong office.

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What next for travel and tourism? Here's what the experts say

In many countries, more than 80% of travel and tourism spending actually comes from the domestic market. Image:  Unsplash/Surface

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Stay up to date:.

• In 2020 alone, the travel and tourism sector lost $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs globally.
• But as the world recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, travel and tourism can bounce back as an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient sector.
• Two experts highlight some of the key transformations in the sector going forward during the World Economic Forum's Our World in Transformation series.

The Travel & Tourism sector was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving not only companies but also tourism-driven economies severely affected by shutdowns, travel restrictions and the disappearance of international travel.

In 2020 alone, the sector lost $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs, impacting the living standards and well-being of communities across the globe. Moreover, the halt in international travel gave both leisure and business travellers the chance to consider the impact of their choices on the climate and environment.

Amid shifting demand dynamics and future opportunities and risks, a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient travel and tourism sector can be - and needs to be - built.

The World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021 finds that embedding inclusivity, sustainability and resilience into the travel and tourism sector as it recovers, will ensure it can continue to be a driver of global connectivity, peace and economic and social progress.

We spoke to Sandra Carvao , Chief of Market Intelligence and Competitiveness at the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and Liz Ortiguera , CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Thailand (PATA), and asked them to highlight some of the key areas of risk and opportunity in the sector during an episode of the World Economic Forum's Our World in Transformation series.

Have you read?

Travel & tourism development index 2021: rebuilding for a sustainable and resilient future, towards resilience and sustainability: travel and tourism development recovery, how can we really achieve sustainability in the travel sector, what are some of the top global trends you're witnessing currently in the travel and tourism sector.

Liz Ortiguera: Given the extended lockdown that we had on travel with the pandemic, vacation for friends and relatives (VFR) is now a high priority for people who haven’t been in touch for a long time thanks to the pandemic. So, people are reconnecting. And that kind of links to the second trend, which is multi-purpose or blended travel. Never before, particularly now that we can connect digitally through Zoom, has the ability to work from anywhere enabled travellers to cover multiple purposes, like visits with friends and multiple business trips. So, we'll find that the duration of travel and the length of stay is longer. And third is the continued high focus on safety and wellness which is top of mind for travellers due to the pandemic. All travel is wellness-related now.

Sandra Carvao: I think there is a bigger concern with sustainability, which is very welcome in our industry. Consumers, particularly the younger generation, are much more aware of the impact they have, not only on the environment but also socially and on the communities they live in. We've also seen an increase in expenditure per trip, so I think people are very eager to go outside, and they're staying longer. And on the other side, I think there are some challenges: we’re seeing a rise in late bookings because restrictions can change at short notice and that’s having an impact on the decisions of travellers. This is putting pressure on the industry in terms of planning and anticipating fluctuations in demand.

Social media surveys have shown that travellers who have immersive experiences are more likely to post about them, which is good for the industry.

What is community-based tourism and why is it important?

Sandra Carvao: One of the positive impacts of the pandemic is that people are looking for local experiences and are spending more time with communities. So, the concept of community-based tourism is obviously one that puts the community at the core of every development, ensuring that it's engaged and empowered and that it benefits. At the UNWTO, we worked with the G20 and the Saudi presidency back in 2020 and produced a framework for tourism development in communities, which states that communities need to be part of the planning and management of tourism activities. We need to go beyond traditional definitions of community to a point where the industry leans on partnerships between the public and private sectors and communities.

Liz Ortiguera: In July 2022, PATA is hosting a destination-marketing forum and one of the key themes is community-based tourism. The purpose is really to put the community and authenticity-in-culture activities at the heart of the travel experience. There are benefits for all stakeholders. One is that travellers can have an authentic experience. They're not in overcrowded, touristic locations and they experience something new and unique within the community. These experiences are designed in partnership with communities who get the benefit of financial inclusion, and if activities are designed properly, the reinforcement of their cultural heritage. Governments also engage in economic development more broadly across countries. Another interesting trend is creative tourism, which means you create an experience for tourists to participate in, like a dance lesson, or a cooking lesson. Social media surveys have shown that travellers who have these kinds of immersive experiences are more likely to post about them online and that's good for the industry.

It is important to emphasize that virtual experiences, while they are a fun tool, can never replace visiting a destination.

How is technology and innovation helping to leverage cultural resources?

Sandra Carvao: One interesting trend we’re seeing is that more and more people are booking trips directly, so communities need to be supported to digitize their systems. Education and upskilling of communities are important so that they can leverage digital platforms to market themselves. From the tourists’ perspective, it is important to emphasize that virtual experiences, while they are a fun tool, can never replace visiting a destination.

Liz Ortiguera: People have been living virtually for more than two years. Amazing innovations have emerged, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, and all kinds of applications and tools. But the important thing is the experience. The destination. Real-world experiences need to remain front and centre. Technology tools should be viewed as enablers and not the core experience. And when it comes to staff, technology can really democratize education. There’s an opportunity to mobilize a mobile-first approach for those who are on the frontlines, or out in the field, and can’t easily access computers, but need to get real-time information.

How is the sector dealing with labour shortages and re-employment of the workforce?

Liz Ortiguera: Labour shortages are much more dynamic in North America and in Europe. But it’s having a knock-on effect on Asia. If, for example, their air carriers are limited by staff and they have to cancel flights, which we're very much seeing out of Europe, seating capacity then becomes a limiting factor in the recovery of Asia Pacific. That's the main constraint right now. And compounding that is the rising price of fuel. But people in the Asia Pacific are keen to get reemployed.

Sandra Carvao: Labour shortages are a priority for the sector in countries around the world. Many workers left the sector during the pandemic and the uncertainty that surrounded the measures taken to contain it left many people unsure of whether the sector would recover. It is time to address things like conditions, scheduling, and work/life balance, all things which have been top of mind for workers during the pandemic. As the sector recovers, we need time to bring new hires on board and to train them to take over where those who switched jobs left off.

Are we seeing a growing trend towards domestic tourism?

Sandra Carvao: We’re talking about 9 billion people travelling within their own countries. And in many countries, for example in Germany, more than 80% of the tourism spending actually comes from the domestic market, similarly in countries like Spain and even smaller economies. Whenever it's possible to travel again, domestic markets tend to be more resilient. They kick off first mostly due to perceptions of safety and security issues. As the world economy recovers from the pandemic, there is a good opportunity for nations to rethink their strategy, look at the domestic market in a different way, and leverage different products for domestic tourists.

When it comes to sustainable tourism, how quickly could we mainstream eco-friendly modes of transportation?

Sandra Carvao: Transport is one of the key contributors to energy impacts and tourism. But it's also important that we look at the whole value chain. The UNWTO together with the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme just launched the Glasgow Declaration, which includes green commitments from destinations and companies. We’re seeing a strong movement in the airline industry to reduce emissions. But I think, obviously, technological developments will be very important. But it's also very important to look at market shifts. And we can't forget small islands and developing states that rely on long-haul air travel. It’s important to make sure that we invest in making the problem much less impactful.

Liz Ortiguera: 'Travel and tourism' is such a broad encompassing term that it’s not fair to call it an industry: it is actually a sector of many industries. The pandemic taught us how broad the impact of the sector is in terms of sustainability. There's a big movement in terms of destination resilience, which is the foundation for achieving sustainability in the journey to net-zero. We now have standards to mitigate that impact including meetings-and-events (MIE) standards and standards for tour operators. There are multiple areas within our industry where progress is being made. And I'm really encouraged by the fact that there is such a focus not just within the sector but also among consumers.

This interview was first done at the World Economic Forum's studios in Geneva as part of 'Our World in Transformation' - a live interactive event series for our digital members. To watch all the episodes and join future sessions, please subscribe here .

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Travel Industry Takes Crucial First Step Toward Combating Climate Change

More than 300 travel companies, tourism boards and countries have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, the first step for a shared road map to cut carbon emissions.

By Ceylan Yeginsu

The travel industry has reached a turning point.

As thousands of scientists, government officials and business leaders met in Glasgow over the past two weeks for the pivotal United Nations climate conference , hundreds of members of the trillion-dollar tourism industry came together and made the first commitment toward a shared road map to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach “net zero” by 2050.

More than 300 global travel stakeholders, including tour operators, tourism boards and hotel chains, have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, requiring them to submit a concrete and transparent plan within 12 months. While the details have yet to be put forward, the companies and countries that signed on, from Germany railway company Deutsche Bahn AG to the country of Panama, will be expected to disclose their carbon emissions and offer clear strategies for how to reduce them. The process is being spearheaded by the U.N. World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council, two industry bodies that have previously sparred on climate matters.

“This is undoubtedly the biggest climate commitment our industry has come together for,” said Jeremy Smith, the co-founder of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency , an initiative that supports climate action and provided the framework for the Glasgow Declaration.

“Our initiative launched two years ago because the industry had no collective plan, and we did well getting over 400 tourism organizations on board without funding,” he said. “But the Glasgow Declaration builds on our work. It’s the coming together of major players in our sector and it’s owned by everyone who has signed it, establishing collective responsibility.”

The travel industry is a large contributor to global carbon emissions, with a footprint estimated between 8 and 11 percent of total greenhouse gases, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, or W.T.T.C . Aviation alone represents around 17 percent of total travel carbon emissions. Each year, a growing number of destinations and communities heavily dependent on tourism — countries like Thailand, India and Madagascar — are hit hard by the impacts of climate change, in the form of rising sea levels, drought, wildfires, deforestation and biodiversity loss.

The pandemic spotlighted the adverse impact of industry growth and overtourism on Venice, Bali and other popular destinations, forcing some places to take stock and pivot toward more sustainable and environmentally friendly business models. Yet with most operators and destinations reeling from the industry shutdown last year, it is unclear how many of those plans will be prioritized over the need for fast recovery.

“We need a cultural change and we need to move beyond the traditional growth-oriented mind-sets to see a more sustainable, responsible and climate-neutral tourism ecosystem,” said Patrick Child, deputy director general of environment at the European Commission.

52 Places to Love in 2021

We asked readers to tell us about the spots that have delighted, inspired and comforted them in a dark year. Here, 52 of the more than 2,000 suggestions we received, to remind us that the world still awaits.

‘A lot of apathy’

The declaration has four main targets: measurement, requiring companies to disclose all travel- and tourism-related emissions; decarbonization, by setting targets aligned with climate science; regeneration, to restore and protect natural ecosystems; and collaboration, to ensure best practices are shared and financing is available to follow through.

A recent analysis by the W.T.T.C. of 250 travel businesses found that only 42 percent had publicly announced climate targets and many of them were not based on the latest science. The council last week published a road map for different industries within travel, providing concrete guidance on how to reach “net zero” targets by 2050.

“There has been a lot of apathy, with some people not quite sure about what they need to do and how to do it, or some thinking they are not significant enough, and that’s why it’s really important for larger organizations to show the way,” said Darrell Wade, the co-founder and chairman of Intrepid Travel , the only global tour company with a climate target verified by the Science Based Targets initiative , which promotes best practices in emissions reductions in line with climate science.

Joining Deutsche Bahn and Panama in signing the Glasgow Declaration are big companies like Accor, Skyscanner, The Travel Corporation and Iberostar Group , as well as countries that are already affected by climate change, including Norway and Barbados. Signatories hope that more destinations will participate in the coming weeks.

Throughout his experience in the Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency initiative, Mr. Smith found it easier to get smaller, more agile companies and smaller countries involved. When it came to larger companies, there were more barriers and obstacles, he said.

“When you reach a destination, or even a city, it becomes even harder because there are multiple different players with different interests at the scale of a country,” he said. “It takes time.”

Panama, one of only three carbon-negative countries in the world (meaning that it absorbs more carbon emissions than it emits), has taken a lead role in establishing initiatives for economic growth in tourism, which also benefit and preserve local communities and resources.

“Our main plan for our sustainable tourism market is to empower local communities, particularly Indigenous people, so that they can generate an income through tourism that allows them to preserve their ancestral way of life, allowing them to sustainably manage their natural resources like forests and coral reefs,” said Ivan Eskildsen, Panama’s tourism minister.

He pointed to an example of a trail that was built in a national park that was designed to involve local communities in the active management of the area. “Over 30 percent of our land and sea are preserved national parks, so it’s humanly impossible to supervise all these areas,” he said. “The community can benefit economically from these areas and will also be prone to stay and take care of it instead of only coming there for short-term income.”

Visit Scotland, that country’s national tourism organization, which helped draft the declaration, has also taken a lead role. The organization has reduced its own carbon emission by 74 percent since 2008, and more than 850 local businesses have been given green tourism awards for their sustainability efforts.

Challenges persist

While the Glasgow Declaration has garnered great momentum and established common objectives, challenges lie ahead, especially when it comes to setting a global standard for reporting emissions figures for such a wide range of sectors within the industry, from tour operators to destinations, and airlines to cruise ships.

Signatories are expected to hold each other accountable and set common standards throughout international supply chains. Once action plans have been submitted within the next year, a reporting framework will be necessary. Anyone who fails to submit a road map within that time frame will be removed from the declaration.

“It is really important to bring value chains together,” said Catherine Dolton, the chief sustainability officer at IHG Hotels and Resorts. “Hotel developers, hotel owners, investors, franchisees, as well as the operators, are all impacting sustainability at different stages of the hotel life cycle.”

Visibly absent from the list of signatories were members of the cruise industry. The sector made a separate pledge to pursue carbon-neutral cruising by 2050 and reduce emissions 40 percent by 2030 in an annual environmental report, published last week by the industry trade group, Cruise Line International Association. While the report makes detailed commitments to reducing the cruise industry’s carbon footprint using new technology and alternative fuels, it does not address other environmental issues such as discharge of waste.

“Despite technical advances and some surveillance programs, cruising remains a major source of air, water (fresh and marine) and land pollution affecting fragile habitats, areas and species, and a potential source of physical and mental human health risks,” according to a recent report by the Marine Pollution Bulletin Journal.

Though there was some disappointment about the limited participation of some industries in the pledge, the overall sentiment was one of optimism and a belief that the declaration would lead to real change and less “greenwashing,” a term used to describe companies that try to portray themselves as more environmentally minded than they actually are.

“I’ve long been quite pessimistic about travel and tourism’s approach toward climate change,” said Mr. Wade of Intrepid Travel, which recently published a tool kit, available online, to help travel businesses measure and reduce their carbon emissions. “But now I’m really very optimistic because there is broad-level support from the industry to actually reduce emissions, and it’s the first time I’ve seen real concrete commitments from industry and governments.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list for 2021 .

Ceylan Yeginsu is a London-based reporter. She joined The Times in 2013, and was previously a correspondent in Turkey covering politics, the migrant crisis, the Kurdish conflict, and the rise of Islamic State extremism in Syria and the region. More about Ceylan Yeginsu

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What's the problem with overtourism?

With visitor numbers around the world increasing towards pre-pandemic levels, the issue of overtourism is once again rearing its head.

When locals in the charming Austrian lakeside village of Hallstatt staged a blockade of the main access tunnel, brandishing placards asking visitors to ‘think of the children’, it highlighted what can happen when places start to feel overrun by tourists. Hallstatt has just 800 residents but has opened its doors to around 10,000 visitors a day — a population increase of over 1,000%. And it’s just one of a growing number of places where residents are up in arms at the influx of travellers.

The term ‘overtourism’ is relatively new, having been coined over a decade ago to highlight the spiralling numbers of visitors taking a toll on cities, landmarks and landscapes. As tourist numbers worldwide return towards pre-pandemic levels, the debate around what constitutes ‘too many’ visitors continues. While many destinations, reliant on the income that tourism brings, are still keen for arrivals, a handful of major cities and sites are now imposing bans, fines, taxes and time-slot systems, and, in some cases, even launching campaigns of discouragement in a bid to curb tourist numbers.

What is overtourism?

In essence, overtourism is too many people in one place at any given time. While there isn’t a definitive figure stipulating the number of visitors allowed, an accumulation of economic, social and environmental factors determine if and how numbers are creeping up.

There are the wide-reaching effects, such as climate change. Coral reefs, like the Great Barrier Reef and Maya Bay, Thailand, made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Beach , are being degraded from visitors snorkelling, diving and touching the corals, as well as tour boats anchoring in the waters. And 2030 transport-related carbon emissions from tourism are expected to grow 25% from 2016 levels, representing an increase from 5% to 5.3% of all man-made emissions, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). More localised issues are affecting locals, too. Renters are being evicted by landlords in favour of turning properties into holiday lets, and house prices are escalating as a result. As visitors and rental properties outnumber local residents, communities are being lost. And, skyrocketing prices, excessive queues, crowded beaches, exorbitant noise levels, damage at historical sites and the ramifications to nature as people overwhelm or stray from official paths are also reasons the positives of tourism can have a negative impact.

Conversely, ‘undertourism’ is a term applied to less-frequented destinations, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. The economic, social and environmental benefits of tourism aren't always passed on to those with plenty of capacity and, while tourist boards are always keen for visitors to visit their lesser-known attractions, it’s a more sustainable and rewarding experience for both residents and visitors.

What’s the main problem with it?

Overcrowding is an issue for both locals and tourists. It can ruin the experience of sightseeing for those trapped in long queues, unable to visit museums, galleries and sites without advance booking, incurring escalating costs for basics like food, drink and hotels, and faced with the inability to experience the wonder of a place in relative solitude. The absence of any real regulations has seen places take it upon themselves to try and establish some form of crowd control, meaning no cohesion and no real solution.

Justin Francis, co-founder and CEO of Responsible Travel, a tour operator that focuses on more sustainable travel, says “Social media has concentrated tourism in hotspots and exacerbated the problem, and tourist numbers globally are increasing while destinations have a finite capacity. Until local people are properly consulted about what they want and don’t want from tourism, we’ll see more protests.”

A French start up, Murmuration, which monitors the environmental impact of tourism by using satellite data, states that 80% of travellers visit just 10% of the world's tourism destinations, meaning bigger crowds in fewer spots. And, the UNWTO predicts that by 2030, the number of worldwide tourists, which peaked at 1.5 billion in 2019, will reach 1.8 billion,   likely leading to greater pressure on already popular spots and more objection from locals.

Who has been protesting?

Of the 800 residents in the UNESCO-listed village of Hallstatt, around 100 turned out in August to show their displeasure and to push for a cap on daily visitors and a curfew on tour coach arrivals.

Elsewhere, residents in Venice fought long and hard for a ban on cruise ships, with protest flags often draped from windows. In 2021, large cruise ships over 25,000 tonnes were banned from using the main Giudecca Canal, leaving only smaller passenger ferries and freight vessels able to dock.

In France, the Marseille Provence Cruise Club introduced a flow management system for cruise line passengers in 2020, easing congestion around the popular Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde Basilica. A Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) spokesperson said, “Coaches are limited to four per ship during the morning or afternoon at the Basilica to ensure a good visitor experience and safety for residents and local businesses. This is a voluntary arrangement respected by cruise lines.”

While in Orkney, Scotland, residents have been up in arms at the number of cruise ships docking on its shores. At the beginning of 2023, the local council confirmed that 214 cruise ship calls were scheduled for the year, bringing around £15 million in revenue to the islands. Following backlash from locals, the council has since proposed a plan to restrict the number of ships on any day.

What steps are being taken?  

City taxes have become increasingly popular, with Barcelona increasing its nightly levy in April 2023 — which was originally introduced in 2012 and varies depending on the type of accommodation — and Venice expects to charge day-trippers a €5 fee from 2024.

In Amsterdam this summer, the city council voted to ban cruise ships, while the mayor, Femke Halsema, commissioned a campaign of discouragement, asking young British men who planned to have a 'vacation from morals’ to stay away. In Rome, sitting at popular sites, such as the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, has been restricted by the authorities.

And in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, meanwhile, the Narok County governor has introduced on-the-spot fines for off-roading. He also plans to double nightly park fees in peak season.

What are the forecasts for global tourism?  

During the Covid pandemic, tourism was one of the hardest-hit industries — according to UNWTO, international tourist arrivals dropped 72% in 2020. However, traveller numbers have since been rapidly increasing, with double the number of people venturing abroad in the first three months of 2023 than in the same period in 2022. And, according to the World Travel Tourism Council, the tourism sector is expected to reach £7.5 trillion this year, 95% of its pre-pandemic levels.

While the tourism industry is forecast to represent 11.6% of the global economy by 2033, it’s also predicted that an increasing number of people will show more interest in travelling more sustainably. In a 2022 survey by Booking.com, 64% of the people asked said they would be prepared to stay away from busy tourist sites to avoid adding to congestion.

Are there any solutions?  

There are ways to better manage tourism by promoting more off-season travel, limiting numbers where possible and having greater regulation within the industry. Encouraging more sustainable travel and finding solutions to reduce friction between residents and tourists could also have positive impacts. Promoting alternative, less-visited spots to redirect travellers may also offer some benefits.

Harold Goodwin, emeritus professor at Manchester Metropolitan University, says, “Overtourism is a function of visitor volumes, but also of conflicting behaviours, crowding in inappropriate places and privacy. Social anthropologists talk about frontstage and backstage spaces. Tourists are rarely welcome in backstage spaces. To manage crowds, it’s first necessary to analyse and determine the causes of them.

Francis adds: “However, we must be careful not to just recreate the same problems elsewhere. The most important thing is to form a clear strategy, in consultation with local people about what a place wants or needs from tourism.”

As it stands, overtourism is a seasonal issue for a small number of destinations. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, a range of measures are clearly an option depending on the scale of the problem. For the majority of the world, tourism remains a force for good with many benefits beyond simple economic growth.

Related Topics

• OVERTOURISM
• SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Wellbeing and resilience in tourism: a systematic literature review during covid-19.

• 1 CIERL, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
• 2 Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-Being (CinTurs), University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UWTO) has acknowledged 2020 as the worst year in tourism history due to the worldwide pandemic COVID-19. Destinations, tourists, local communities, stakeholders, and residents, and their daily activities were affected. Thus, wellbeing and resilience are two crucial variables to help the industry and the people recover. This research aims to analyze early positive approaches and attitudes to respond to the negative impact of COVID-19 in tourism everyday activities that have at its core wellbeing and resilience, the two main variables of the Positive Psychology field of studies. A systematic literature review was conducted, following PRISMA guidelines to achieve this aim. The research was done using the Online Knowledge Library (B-on) and all the available databases. The research led to 32 articles that were screened using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 18 scientific articles met all criteria. Overall, results show that a positive and resilient approach to deal with the adverse outcomes of the pandemic is a concern for stakeholders and the future of the organizations in the tourism and hospitality sector, as is tourists’ wellbeing. However, less research has been done on wellbeing and a clear lack of research regarding residents’ wellbeing and resilience is evident. A deeper study of wellbeing and resilience in tourism is needed, and actual practices and interventions to ensure that all tourism actors have the resources to overcome the pandemic and restart the industry’s daily lives feeling well and safe.

Introduction

In 2015, the United Nations launched the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 goals to transform the world. The overall aim of this agenda was (and it still is) to promote a more peaceful, resilient, and equitable world while keeping in mind the sustainability of the planet ( The Lancet Public Health, 2020 ). The array of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) includes health and wellbeing as one of these and assumes it as a priority for all ages ( The Lancet Public Health, 2020 ).

Wellbeing can be seen as a practice or a process related to living a good life ( Buzinde, 2020 ). The study of wellbeing has in Positive Psychology one of its main streams since this field is “(…) the scientific study of the strengths, characteristics, and actions that enable individuals and communities to thrive” ( Seligman, 2013 , p. 2).

Tourism can be a direct or indirect contributor to all sustainable goals ( Santos et al., 2020 ), including wellbeing. Scholars have considered Positive Psychology and subsequently, the study of wellbeing in tourism a natural step in the field that can support product innovation, the tourism experience, and leads to the competitiveness of tourism ( Garcês et al., 2020 ). Tourism has three base and important actors: tourists, destinations/locals, and stakeholders/workers. A balance between these is crucial to ensure the continuous improvement of the industry because one cannot exist without the other ( Garcês et al., 2020 ). Tourism experiences can improve the wellbeing of residents and tourists, and wellbeing can be a creative opportunity to innovate in destinations ( Garcês et al., 2018 ). However, studies in this field have focused mainly on tourists, with a noticeable lack of research about positive psychology variables focused on local communities and tourism workers ( Vada et al., 2020 ). Nevertheless, research has shown that tourists’ wellbeing is influenced by relationships, learning of a new place and culture, and/or learning new skills. Thus, initiatives that involve tourists within the community, such as volunteer activities, will promote tourists’ wellbeing, but not only locals, the community and even the place sustainability can gain from these experiences ( Vada et al., 2020 ).

However, COVID-19 led tourism activities to an unprecedented loss worldwide. From January 2020 to March 2021, there were 180 million fewer arrivals worldwide ( UNWTO, 2021b ). The lowest numbers were seen in Asia and the Pacific, followed by Europe, Africa, Middle East, and the Americas ( UNWTO, 2021b ). In January 2021, the number of international tourists’ arrivals was 87% less than in January 2020 ( UNWTO, 2021c ). In February 2021, 32% of worldwide destinations were entirely shut down to international arrivals, 34% partly closed, and only 2% have relaxed travel restrictions ( UNWTO, 2021a ). From an economic perspective, the pandemic led to a drop of 64% in receipts ( UNWTO, 2021b ). Destinations, residents, and tourists were (and still are) affected by the travel restrictions. While hope for improvement exists, particularly with the vaccination, experts believe that achieving 2019 numbers will only be possible after 2024 and maybe later ( UNWTO, 2021b ).

The pandemic is a threat to progress made in the sustainable development goal tree that looks to ensure health and wellbeing for all ( The Lancet Public Health, 2020 ). It has had severe consequences in society, the environment, and in people’s health and wellbeing ( Passavanti et al., 2021 ). Pandemics and other health crises lead to a growth in mental health problems, influencing tourists’ behaviors, and also their wellbeing ( Abbas et al., 2021 ). However, COVID-19 will also impact the well-being of those who work in tourism ( McCartney et al., 2021 ). Unemployment, panic generated by COVID-19, and lack of social support are considered key hazards to the tourism and hospitality employees’ perceived wellbeing ( Chen, 2020 ). In already done studies, in the context of COVID-19, job insecurity has had a significant effect on hotel employees’ anxiety and depression, and resilience was a moderator reducing the negative impact of job insecurity in depression ( Aguiar-Quintana et al., 2021 ). Overall, research shows that COVID-19 pandemic–perceived risk produces uncertainty and fear, leading to increased stress and vulnerability, and subsequently to a loss of mental wellbeing ( Paredes et al., 2021 ). Threat severity and susceptibility can trigger fear of traveling, yet it can also lead to protective travel behaviors. The fear of traveling can induce coping strategies, increasing individuals’ resilience, and embracing careful travel behaviors ( Zheng et al., 2021 ).

With the ongoing pandemic tourists, behavior patterns are expected to change, with tourists preferably choosing destinations with a low number of tourists and good sanitary conditions. A preference for places with outdoor activities or nature-related are characteristics looked for, as well as domestic destinations within the residency country. International travel has in destinations with a low number of COVID cases an attraction factor also ( Santos et al., 2020 ).

Recovering from COVID-19 has become a tourism research urgency, and the importance of resilience is clear to help build a quick and effective response and is a significant part of the ongoing research ( McCartney et al., 2021 ). Resilience is a concept that moves around “(…) between disciplines, between academia and public use, or between contexts,” and “it takes on slightly different meanings as it moves” ( Rogers et al., 2020 , p. 4). Resilience can be seen as a capacity to resist being “put down,” but also as the ability to recover and thrive from traumatic situations ( Harms et al., 2018 ). As a personal trait, resilience may allow people to manage negative situations better ( Liu et al., 2020 ). Research is showing that resilience has a mediator effect between personality traits and subjective wellbeing and stress experienced at the start of the pandemic, which leads to considering resilience as a protective factor to an adaptive reaction in the face of stressful experiences ( Kocjan et al., 2021 ). Expanding this concept, “The resilience level of how the community responds to the disruption caused by the lockdown and stress caused could influence city resilience” ( McCartney et al., 2021 , p. 7). Research in resilience must go beyond how to come out of a crisis and develop future resilience ( McCartney et al., 2021 ). Tourism must increase its resilience. This can be made by diversification: develop new business models; improve sustainability and digitalization ( Santos et al., 2020 ). As scholars are acknowledging, “From now on, the bet should not be on the increase in visitor numbers but on ‘better, more comfortable travel, personalized service, while maintaining affordable prices”’ ( Abbas et al., 2021 , p. 6).

The changes in tourists’ behaviors with the pandemic allow an opportunity for research and innovation in tourism. A preference for safe and healthy environments is expected. Also, a shift from overtourism destinations to less busy ones, emphasizing rural and nature tourism, is already being seen. This can be an opportunity to help places that are more remote to flourish, and at the same time diminish the effects of overtourism in others, as seen before the pandemic ( Santos et al., 2020 ). But also, the changes in tourists’ preferences can be opportunities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals ( Santos et al., 2020 ), including the goal for health and wellbeing. As acknowledged by scholars “(…) in wellbeing, it is possible to have multiple directions and starting points. It, however, makes sense that research should be venturing toward new grounds and eudaimonic wellbeing seems a natural approach as it is a concept related to the idea of personal fulfillment and development that people are looking for” ( Garcês et al., 2020 , p. 113).

Thus, for the current research wellbeing and resilience were chosen as the main variables. Wellbeing was chosen because, beyond being a European Sustainable Goal for 2030, it is also a rising motivator for traveling and tourism. Resilience was chosen because it is a concept intimately related to wellbeing, that helps to deal effectively with adversity. Beyond that, it is part of many countries’ strategic planning to deal with the pandemic. So, considering the importance of wellbeing for tourism and the need for resilience for all actors of this industry, this study tries to answer the question of how are wellbeing and resilience being used in tourism as positive strategies to deal with the pandemic negative consequences? Particularly, this research aims to analyze early positive approaches and attitudes to respond to COVID-19 negative impact on tourism everyday activities that have at its core wellbeing and resilience, two main variables of the Positive Psychology field of studies, which is the theoretical framework that guides this current research. Tourism everyday activities in the current study were considered people’s (tourists, residents, workers/stakeholders) actions and behaviors in activities linked to tourism.

A systematic literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses – PRISMA ( Moher et al., 2009 ). Considering the study aim, the following search terms were chosen Wellbeing; Resilience; Tourism; and Pandemic. The research took place in January 2021 using the Online Knowledge Library (B-On) and all the available databases on this platform which include: Complementary Index, SCOPUS, Academic Search Complete; Science Citation Index, Business Source Complete; MEDLINE, Supplemental Index, ScienceDirect; Directory of Open Access Journals, Social Sciences Citation Index, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, arXiv, Gale in Context: Science; Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Gale Literature Resource Center, ERIC, SciELO, SciTech Connect, RCAAP, Dialnet, Government Printing Office Catalog, University Press Scholarship Online, Research Starters, Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH), UC Digitalis; Oxford Scholarship online; SSOAR – Social Science Open Access Repository; eBook Index, Oxford Handbooks Online; and OAPEN Library. The search focused on scientific articles published between 2020 and 2021 in the English language.

The inclusion criteria used were (a) scientific articles published between 2020 and 2021; (b) articles written in English; (c) articles with the search terms included in its keywords; (d) scientific research articles with peer review; and (e) articles mainly focused on the search terms. The exclusion criteria used were (a) scientific articles published before 2020; (b) articles not written in English; (c) articles that did not include the search terms; (d) articles not peer-reviewed; and (e) articles not mainly focused on the search terms. The search was focused on the article’s keywords since this represents the core concepts of the articles.

The first search done on B-On crossed “Wellbeing or wellbeing or well-being” AND “Tour?sm*” AND “Pandemic or COVID-19 or coronavirus.” The second search was also done on B-On crossed the search terms: “Resilient?e” AND “Tour?sm*” AND “Pandemic or COVID-19 or coronavirus.” The Boolean operator “AND” was used to ensure that all three terms were included in the search and “OR” to ensure all variations for the terms “wellbeing” and those related to the “Pandemic.” The truncation symbol “*” was used to guarantee the inclusion of words with the same origin, and the “?” to include singular and plural forms. Inclusion/exclusion criteria (a); (b), (c), and (d) were applied through the online features of B-On, and criteria (e) was done manually.

Research led to the identification of 32 records in the following databases: Directory of Open Access Journals, Social Sciences Citation Index, ScienceDirect, Supplemental Index, Complementary Index, and SCOPUS. Four duplicates were found and removed, leading to 28 articles. Further analysis led to the exclusion of 11 more articles with criteria violations, namely, six commentaries; one editorial; and four records not mainly focused on the search terms. These criteria violations were encountered after applying inclusion/exclusion criteria (e) through a qualitative screening of each article abstract and/or full-text. Thus, in the end, a total of 17 scientific articles were considered as meeting all inclusion criteria, and hence, were further analyzed.

From the systematic literature review, only 32 records were first found. The application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria led to a total of 17 studies to be included in the final sample. The PRISMA ( Moher et al., 2009 ) flow diagram for this research can be seen in Figure 1 .

Figure 1. Flow diagram following PRISMA (2009) guidelines.

Despite the small number of articles, it is an indicator of interest by researchers on the importance of thinking about wellbeing and resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite having restricted the search to 2020 and 2021, this decision was made solemnly with the intend to analyze the most current research regarding the use of positive variables such as wellbeing and resilience during the pandemic, which was only acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic in March 2020 ( World Health Organization [WHO], 2020 ). Table 1 presents the number of articles published in 2020 and January 2021 (data collection retrieval month).

Table 1. Number of articles distributed between 2020 and 2021.

From Table 1 , it is possible to acknowledge a low number of published articles related to the search terms on the selected dates. However, despite the low number of published articles, this research was done at the end of January 2021, almost a year after COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic ( World Health Organization [WHO], 2020 ). In this short time gap, the existence of already published materials at this time highlights the current need to learn and explore more the impact of the pandemic and how to restart tourism’s everyday activities with a positive outlook.

From the analysis of Table 2 , a clear emphasis is made on the resilience concept, with three times more articles on this topic than on wellbeing. This leads to thinking resilience as a positive psychological construct that reflects the skills to deal with adversity and is seen as important and as a positive asset and attitude to ensure the survival and future thriving of tourism.

Table 2. Number of articles distributed according to the positive variables: Wellbeing and resilience.

In Table 3 , all assessed articles’ main findings are summarized.

Table 3. Articles’ main findings.

From an in-depth analysis of the sample findings, it is possible to see two major tourism actors of interest: tourists and businesses. Regarding tourists, there is a wide range of topics studied. Some examined tourists’ perceptions about wellbeing, highlighting the importance of safety measures before travel or even upon arrival, such as getting tested for COVID-19 ( Agrusa et al., 2021 ). Others ( Yang et al., 2020 ) emphasized the need to revisit travel-induced wellbeing, and the need to rethink it, particularly in the long term, since some tourism experiences such as the ones that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, brought a loss of wellbeing after the trip, particularly perceived discrimination, thus questioning the literature that considers tourism as an induce-wellbeing activity ( Yang et al., 2020 ). Wellbeing was also considered as an important variable in predicting attitudes toward international travel and temporal avoidance behaviors ( Chua et al., 2020 ). Another research ( Zheng et al., 2021 ) studying different psychological variables and travel behavior in Chinese tourists, highlighted the positive benefits of “(…) psychological resilience on individuals’ intention to adapt caution travel after the pandemic outbreak.” Other researchers ( Wen et al., 2020 ) predicting how COVID-19 will affect tourists’ behaviors emphasized a growing interest in health and wellness tourism, among others. Another one of the studies ( Buckley and Westway, 2020 ) also acknowledged the psychological positive effects of walking-in-nature tourism, emphasizing an entrepreneur opportunity to promote wellbeing, particularly when thinking about recovering from the lockdowns that COVID-19 brought to the world.

As highlighted before, businesses were a focus of interest that stand-out in the current systematic research. In this regard, the importance of resilience to sustainable tourism development amid the pandemic is clear ( Sobaih et al., 2021 ). Also, the importance of organizational learning and business preparedness to deal with crisis and disasters is emphasized, which can lead to business resilience to overcome the negative impacts of such disasters, not only COVID-19, but future ones too ( Bhaskara and Filimonau, 2021 ). The positive impact of resilience on business performance is also highlighted in another study findings ( Setthachotsombut and Sua-iam, 2020 ). The need for businesses to implement actions and changes to cope with the pandemic and its impact is clear ( Alonso et al., 2020 ). Some studies in this regard highlight that satisfied employees with the organization COVID-19 responses positively influence job performance. Employees’ satisfaction may help to maintain their wellbeing, and therefore, they reciprocate through positive behaviors/attitudes ( Vo-Thanh et al., 2020 ). Again, the importance of corporate social responsibility to maintain not only employee’s resilience but also other positive psychological variables such as self-efficacy, hope, and optimism is empathized ( Mao et al., 2020 ). The importance of organizational resilience to organizational commitment, and the fact that resilience influences “the scope of adoption of anti-COVID-19 measures” is again emphasized ( Filimonau et al., 2020 ). Overall, another research stated that different sectors of the leisure and hospitality industry showed different resilience “levels” and some signs of recovery, still the pandemic is a hard situation and will endure a long-run recovery period ( Khan et al., 2020 ).

While tourists and businesses have a clear interest in research, some studies also highlight tourism as a whole unit, acknowledging the importance of resilience of destinations, enterprises, and tourists and its study, but also to see COVID-19 as an opportunity to reset tourism ( Prayag, 2020 ). A resilience framework for the tourism industry, highlighting this positive variable importance is acknowledged, and that smaller enterprises can also gain and ensure wellbeing at a bigger scale, while also promoting a more sustainable tourism ( Sharma et al., 2021 ). Research about COVID-19 can be a way to innovate tourism having sustainability and wellbeing as centerpieces ( Sigala, 2020 ).

In this analysis, it is also an important topic to rethink the future of tourism in the post-COVID era ( Agrusa et al., 2021 ). COVID-19 can be an opportunity to rethink tourism policies and strategies to ensure stability between the wellbeing of residents, tourists, and products, particularly in areas where overtourism was already a big issue among residents ( Agrusa et al., 2021 ).

Overall, the current systematic literature review highlighted the importance of wellbeing and resilience in tourism’s everyday activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism is one of the industries worldwide, that was most affected (if not the most affected) by the pandemic with a reduction of international arrivals from January 2020 to 2021 of more than 80% ( UNWTO, 2021c ). This number is astonishing and something that has never occurred before such a scale.

The pandemic is a threat to most activities in tourism and in many other sectors, and for all Humankind. Particularly it puts at risk the achievement of 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, including the mental health and wellbeing of all people ( Passavanti et al., 2021 ). Tourism was (and still is) tremendously affected by COVID-19, with a drop of more than 64% in receipts ( UNWTO, 2021b ), thus, affecting destinations, locals, and tourists. Resilience has come as a major goal and key process to overcome the challenges imposed by the pandemic. A big emphasis of this concept is seen on tourism stakeholders who are trying to survive COVID-19 impacts ( McCartney et al., 2021 ). The urgency to promote and increase resilience can be seen in the number of articles that focused on resilience comparatively to wellbeing in the current systematic literature review. The uncertainty that the pandemic brought made it urgent for the tourism industry to find new ways to overcome the difficulties. This can be observed in the results, where topics related to how to deal with the current crisis and even future ones ( Alonso et al., 2020 ; Bhaskara and Filimonau, 2021 ) or the benefits of resilience for businesses ( Setthachotsombut and Sua-iam, 2020 ) are highlighted and accentuated by the research. Resilience plans should be standard practice for all tourism stakeholders. While a pandemic was not something foreseen, it should be thought of as a warning for better planning and management in case of disasters or crises in tourism. Being an economic activity, tourism, highly dependent on external factors, such as weather, social crisis, or security, going forward, destination’s policymakers must prevent future crisis setbacks by planning and ensuring resilience to deal with whatever the next threat may be. In practical terms, such planning should be considered in national and local policies, but also as an internal business policy. In here, the introduction of, for example, policies to work remotely can be identified to ensure a smooth transition from on-site to on-line or even hybrid performances.

Another important result from this systematic analysis is the fact that research in wellbeing and resilience has mainly been focused on tourists and above all on businesses. This situation is also acknowledged by the literature ( Vada et al., 2020 ) where research has mostly been centered on tourists leaving behind local communities and tourism workers. Businesses have a particular interest in how to face COVID-19 and be resilient to ensure the thriving of the industry. Although in this review tourism workers were acknowledged in some articles ( Mao et al., 2020 ; Vo-Thanh et al., 2020 ), more needs to be done because their wellbeing is also affected by the pandemic ( McCartney et al., 2021 ) and they are one of the key pillars of tourism ( Garcês et al., 2020 ). Thus, businesses should invest more in wellbeing of their workers since they are the forefront of tourism businesses but also its background. A worker that feels safe and secure will deliver a more satisfactory service that will in return improve the tourists’ satisfaction. However, the complete lack of research on local communities and their residents is of concern, because the pandemic has affected global livelihoods and destinations have no longer tourists ( Abbas et al., 2021 ), which will have impacts on places that have tourism as the main economy. Therefore, studies about locals’ wellbeing and how they face pandemic’s incoming repercussions should be developed, which will hopefully lead to the development of strategies to help the residents of tourism destinations deal with this crisis aftermath while promoting their wellbeing and mental health.

Another interesting result is the disparity between the articles that focused on wellbeing and resilience. Resilience shows a far greater interest. However, it is important to not forget that tourism can be a way to experience wellbeing ( Garcês et al., 2020 ), and although the number of articles focused on wellbeing is much less, they show that this variable should not be forgotten, highlighting the fact that COVID-19 will affect the interest of tourists, moving them to destinations that have in attention wellness and wellbeing endeavors ( Wen et al., 2020 ). Policymakers and stakeholders have in here a “gold” opportunity to innovate. Wellbeing and wellness can be attractive factors for new tourists and thus open doors to developing new products and activities in destinations. These changes in tourists’ behaviors should be seen as opportunities to “refresh” tourism and even to solve pre-COVID problems in some destinations such as overtourism. Tourists will be now looking more for quieter places, with outdoor experiences and in nature ( Santos et al., 2020 ). This is interesting because research in pre-COVID times has linked nature to feelings of wellbeing ( Garcês et al., 2018 ), and results in the current study already show this trend highlighting the psychological benefits of walking in nature, for example ( Buckley and Westway, 2020 ). Thus, stakeholders can have in wellness and nature products a source to innovate and promote tourists’ wellbeing.

It is also important to note that a small number of articles in this systematic review highlight the future of tourism after COVID-19. This emphasis gives hope for a positive outlook for the future, focusing on the proactive and preventive measures that will help the survival and thriving of the industry, highlighting the importance of developing new policies and strategies to promote wellbeing among all tourism actors ( Agrusa et al., 2021 ). This idea is in accordance with the literature that acknowledges the need to focus on the quality and personalization of services at reasonable prices ( Abbas et al., 2021 ), build new business models, and enhance sustainability and digitalization ( Santos et al., 2020 ) on the post-COVID era. But to become a more resilient industry and a promoter of wellbeing, the industry needs to first think of what has gone wrong, identify the stressors, and develop contingency plans and strategic ones to deal with present and future uncertainty, including crisis. Additionally, it is relevant to notice that the new emerging field of existential positive psychology focus the importance of suffering to flourishing and highlights that dealing with negative situations will allow its transformation to a sense of accomplishment and mature happiness ( Wong, 2021 ). In this new emerging trend, wellbeing is simultaneously a process and an outcome in dealing with the search for positive life goals and transforming the negative situations into better ones ( Wong, 2020 ). Thus, whilst the pandemic has had so far, a tremendous negative impact in tourism, it can also be seen as an opportunity to innovation, and to build the sector resilience while promoting wellbeing for the destinations, the stakeholders, and the tourists. With this new vision of existential Positive Psychology, it is possible to reflect that while COVID-19 brought with it a lot of suffering including for tourism stakeholders, it is also an opportunity to learn from and develop new strengths and simultaneously to improve people tourism experiences.

This study thus highlights an interest in resilience and wellbeing in tourism. However, there is still space for growth. Destinations’ policymakers and all involved in tourism must prepare better for a future crisis, with resilience programs that consider strategies to surpass the adverse outcomes of such crisis, not only for businesses but also for their workers and their residents. At the same time, developing innovation through wellbeing can be a differentiator factor for the destinations, but it can also help promote tourists, locals, and stakeholders’ mental health. New products with a focus on wellness, nature, or rural places can be starting points. This research also brings with it the importance of (re)thinking tourism not only in economic gains, but also in psychological aspects that can have great impact on the restart of the tourism during this pandemic and beyond. Also, this study was developed considering only the COVID-19 pandemic, and what has been done during this situation in terms of wellbeing and resilience in tourism. Thus, it shows the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, a current world problem, in tourism studies. Additionally, world institutions such as OMS and governments of many countries have highlighted the need to be resilient and promote wellbeing in the face of this health crisis, and the tourism industry, as one of the most affected, is no exception.

As for the study limitations, this research was done in January 2021, thus throughout the year, there is an expectation that more studies about the impact of COVID-19 in tourism, particularly considering the study variables will have been published. Thus, it will be important to further study these variables in future studies. The use of keywords may have limited the scope of the research. Therefore, in future research, expanding the search to the title and abstract may allow for the generation of a more significant number of articles on these topics. Also, it will be important to develop practical interventions on how wellbeing and resilience can be key points in tourism. Thus, not only tourists or businesses should be the focus, but also the locals and the workers of this sector.

Overall, in this systematic literature review, it was possible to see a clear focus on the impact and recovery of businesses from COVID-19 pandemic, with resilience as an important variable to achieve it. It is the authors’ belief that this article can contribute particularly to those countries and regions that exclusively depend on tourism everyday activities and that were severely affected by the pandemic, since many depend entirely on the tourism industry to economically survive. This article also hopes to contribute with some ideas and suggestions of how to introduce wellbeing and resilience in the tourism industry, allowing for potential course of action to be taken by all those involved in it. Concluding, while the articles that met all the inclusion criteria were few, this systematic review highlights the concerns of the sector and the urgency to rebound quickly and effectively, and restart tourism and its everyday activities safely and with a positive attitude.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors upon request, without undue reservation.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This article was financed by the National Funds provided by the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology through project UIDB/04020/2020.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : wellbeing, resilience, COVID-19, tourism, positive psychology

Citation: Pocinho M, Garcês S and de Jesus SN (2022) Wellbeing and Resilience in Tourism: A Systematic Literature Review During COVID-19. Front. Psychol. 12:748947. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.748947

Received: 28 July 2021; Accepted: 26 November 2021; Published: 05 January 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Pocinho, Garcês and de Jesus. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Soraia Garcês, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Today’s front page, Tuesday, May 7, 2024

The Philippines: A rising tourism destination in a post-Covid world

• Benjamin Layug
• September 4, 2021
• 4 minute read

In the article “Rising Stars in Travel” by travel writer Jared Ranahan of Forbes.com, the well-respected American business and financial news publication, the Philippines was named among seven countries (the others are Ethiopia, Iran, Myanmar, Georgia, Slovenia and Tunisia) that “have potential to become major tourist destinations in a post-Covid world.”

Even as the global tourism industry struggles in the midst of the unprecedented downturn due to the pandemic, many nations around the world are preparing for a boom in international visitors once travel is more feasible. These seven highly underrated countries have the ingredients to become world-class destinations and establish themselves as a prominent regional force for tourism—pristine natural beauty, historic ruins, and fascinating cultural experiences.

The Philippines offers unique experiences for all kinds of tourists looking for a relaxed and laid-back getaway from the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives, from sandy shores to dreamy mountain scapes to awe-inspiring cities steeped in cultural heritage.

Of course, the No. 1 tourist destination in the country is still the 10.32-sq-km resort island of Boracay, famous for its 4-km long, powder-fine white beach, which is lined with a number of world-class resorts and hotels.  Across the island from white beach is Bulabog Beach, a windsurfing and kite boarding mecca.  Awarded as the Best Island in the World by the international travel magazine Travel + Leisure (T+L) in 2012, Boracay was also at the top of the “Best Islands in the World” list published by the international magazine  Condé Nast Traveler. In 2016, Boracay headed the magazine’s list of “Top 10 Destinations To Watch.”

Similarly, Travel + Leisure cited the island province of Palawan as the world’s best island in the 2020 World’s Best Awards, besting 24 (Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, Maui in Hawaii, Bali in Indonesia, Great Barrier Reef Islands in Australia, etc.) others in the world’s islands category with a score of 94.83. Boracay also made it to No. 14 in T+L ’s World Best Island list and was hailed 5th in Asia that same year.

Offering some of the most beautiful white-sand beaches, resorts and scenery such as striking limestone cliffs extending directly from the ocean, here you can also dive in World War II shipwrecks off Coron (a piece of nature and history enveloped in one destination), explore old-growth rain forests and paddle into Puerto Princesa Subterranean  River, one of the world’s longest subterranean rivers, a Unesco World Heritage Site (1999) and a New 7 Wonders of Nature in 2012. Last year, Condé Nast Traveler also cited the Hidden Beach in El Nido as one of the 30 Best Beaches in the World.

Speaking of diving, the Philippines was recognized, for the second time, as the world’s leading dive destination during last year’s 27th World Travel Awards, besting other famous dive destinations such as the Azores Islands, Bora Bora, French Polynesia, Cayman Islands, Fiji, Galapagos Islands, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, Maldives and Mexico.  Similarly, Intramuros in Manila, a well preserved example of Spanish colonial architecture, was named as the world’s leading tourist attraction winning, for the first time, against Acropolis in Greece, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Grand Canyon National Park in the United States, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Taj Mahal in India, among others.

Siargao, in Northern Mindanao, also won as the World’s Leading Island Destination.  The “Surfing Capital of the Philippines,” its Cloud Nine, a dramatic and powerful reef break, was recently dubbed as the Top 8 among the World’s Best Surfing Spots by CNNGo, a travel site of CNN International. It is also home to beautiful white-sand beaches, naturally carved tide pools, mangrove forests, coves, serene lagoons and caves.

Speaking of Spanish colonial architecture, aside from having world-class diving sites, beautiful white-sand beaches and world-class resorts, Cebu and Bohol are also home to many Spanish-era churches, ancestral houses and watchtowers.  Though many Bohol churches were destroyed or heavily damaged during the October 15, 2013 earthquake, almost all have been rebuilt and faithfully restored.  When in Bohol, a visit to the Chocolate Hills, a National Geological Monument proposed for inclusion in the Unesco World Heritage List, is a must.

Way up north in Luzon is Vigan, a Unesco World Heritage Site.  The best preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town and one of a few left in the country whose old structures have remained mostly intact, its main draw are its sett pavements, Earthquake Baroque  church and stone houses ( bahay na bato ) which fuse native Philippine and Oriental building design and construction.  In May 2015, Vigan was officially recognized as one of the New 7 Wonder s Cities (together with Beirut, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur and La Paz).

Also up north in Luzon is where you will find the spectacular mountain scenery of Cordillera Administrative Region, home to the spectacular Ifugao Rice Terraces, a Unesco World Heritage Site inscribed in 1995; the 2,922-m (9,640 ft) Mount Pulag (the highest peak in Luzon and the third highest in the country), a mountaineers delight; the much-loved, cloud-wreathed and pine-clad Baguio City, the “Summer Capital of the Philippines;” the mighty and swirling Chico River of Kalinga, a white water rafting and kayaking destination; and Banaue and Sagada (home to the “hanging coffins” and Sumaguing Cave), both heaven for adventurers.

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Editorial | Tourism and production

We welcome the Government’s commissioning of what Edmund Bartlett has described as a “multidimensional impact assessment” of Jamaica’s tourism sector, in preparation for the industry’s planned construction of 20,000 new hotel rooms over the next decade.

Hopefully, this study will not narrowly advance the interests of the tourism industry. It must be a robust analysis of tourism’s current and future economic, social and environmental footprint and what, in the context of global warming and climate change, will be the island saturation point for the industry’s expansion.

Neither should this study stand on its own. It should fit within a broader matrix for pushing Jamaica up the production and productivity supply chain, so as to extricate itself from the low value-added, low-growth and low-wage environment in which it has been trapped for over four decades.

In other words, this study must be an integral part of an industrial policy that, among other things, establishes strong and competitive linkages between tourism and the rest of the economy.

There is little doubt about tourism’s importance to Jamaica’s economy – it directly accounts for around 13 per cent of gross domestic product – or of its resilience.

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After its collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism arrivals have rebounded to the pre-pandemic level. An estimated 4.3 million tourists came to Jamaica in 2023-24. Sixty-nine per cent were stopover visitors.

The industry directly employs more than 100,000 people, or over 10 per cent of the employed labour force. That figure, according to Mr Bartlett, rises to over 350,000 when tourism’s impact across the economy is taken into the account.

CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMY

Of equal, or even greater, significance is tourism’s financial contribution to the economy. In the last fiscal year, according to the minister, it grossed US$4.38 billion, an increase of 9.6 per cent on the amount for 2022-23. And Mr Bartlett said that 40 per cent ( US$1.752 billion, or over J$271 billion) of that income remained in Jamaica, meaning 40 cents out of every dollar earned by tourism is spent in the domestic economy or stays in Jamaican bank accounts (as opposed to the portion that goes to foreign goods and service providers) to keep the industry going.

The external costs include those associated with bringing tourists to the island, such as paying for airline tickets; marketing and advertising expenditures; the amortisation of foreign capital employed in developing the tourism infrastructure; repatriated profits; and the money spent on imports for the industry, including food and drink.

Some people will be surprised at that reported level of retention, which is higher than many of Jamaica’s Caribbean peers, although it lags behind global competitors with stronger industrial and agricultural bases.

While tourism’s gross earnings, US$4.38 billion, makes it Jamaica’s biggest earner of foreign exchange, Mr Bartlett’s estimate of a 40 per cent (US$1.75 billion) domestic retention places second, after remittances, as the sector with respect to direct circulation in the local economy. According to central bank data, Jamaicans abroad last year sent home US$3.1 billion, or 46 per cent more than tourism’s domestic retention.

However, the gross take from tourism was over 130 per cent more than the island earned from its merchandise exports, although the domestically retained portion was 92 per cent the value of all the island’s visible exports.

CLOSING THE GAP

However, Jamaica’s imports of US$7.7 billion worth of visible imports is more than four times its merchandise exports. Tourism plays a major role in closing the gap.

A significant chunk of those imports, though, are consumed by the tourists in much of the food they eat, the beds they sleep in, the vehicles which transport them – and even souvenirs they purchase.

According to Mr Bartlett, the industry has an annual demand for J$365 billion (US$2.34 billion) worth of visible goods. Some of what is now imported could, presumably, be offset with domestic production. That requires increased production and improved linkages between tourism and the rest of the economy.

Or, as Mr Bartlett said: “We have to invest more on the supply side, so that the 40 cents (on the dollar) that stays here can become 50 or 60, because the less we import is the more we retain.”

There are low-hanging fruits that Jamaica could pick with relative ease, starting with food. The island’s food import bill is US$1.4 billion, a large portion of which goes to feeding tourists.

Experts say that between a fifth and a quarter of the imported food could be substituted with domestic production, saving between US$280 million and US$350 million. Some of that money could be invested in modernising agriculture and agro-processing, or diverted to other areas of production.

But these things will not happen on a wish. And they ought not to be left to a slow evolution.

Partnerships between the Government, the private sector and other key sectors and institutions, including those involved in education and innovation, will help to hasten the creation of the necessary environment. Which makes studies like the one announced by Mr Bartlett important.

So, too, is the need to remove the shroud of indecency from the concept of an industrial policy.

• «Kenneth Russell | Role of key personnel in prevention of school violence

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Everyone is visiting Japan. An extended currency slump means the tourists will just keep coming.

• Japan's weak currency is boosting tourism, with a record-breaking 3.1 million visitors in March.
• The devalued yen is encouraging tourists to spend more on luxury goods.
• The currency is negatively impacting outbound travel, with more Japanese tourists staying in the country.

Japan is a beloved tourist spot . A weak currency is ensuring that it will remain that way for foreigners.

The country just broke its pre-pandemic tourist record, with 3.1 million foreign visitors in March. The government said it's on track to surpass 2025's target of 32 million annual foreign visitors this year, after 8.6 million tourists visited in the first quarter of 2024.

Japan opened to tourists in October 2022, after over two years of strict, pandemic-induced border restrictions. Pent-up demand, combined with a cheaper currency, has fueled the record number of visitors.

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Tourists are staying longer and spending more due to the weak yen, which makes it cheaper for foreigners to purchase accommodation, activities, food, and gifts. The yen has fallen nearly 10% year-to-date , compared to the dollar.

Japan's currency has been depreciating largely due to high interest rates in the US, which makes the dollar more attractive to investors. A historic rate hike in Japan last month — the first since 2007 — did little to reverse the downward trend.

Japan is a tourist hot spot because of its status as a culture and entertainment icon, its natural wonders, and its unique cuisine. Tourists from South Korea, China, Taiwan, and the US made up the biggest portion of foreign visitors in March, according to Japan's National Tourism Organization.

Japanese carriers like Japan Airlines and ANA plan to cash in on the tourism boom by running more routes from Asia.

The sharp decline of the yen has also expanded demand for luxury goods. Foreign tourists are taking advantage of the currency discount by snapping up cheaper products in Japan from premium brands such as Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer, Chanel, and Prada, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

While the weak yen creates a sweet spot for foreigners, it is severely hurting Japanese travelers.

The number of outbound travelers was less than half the number of inbound travelers in March, per the National Tourism Organization. Outbound Japanese travel was down 37% last month compared to the same period in 2019, though it ticked up from February, the agency's data shows.

High airfare costs and low buying power is compelling more locals to skip international travel in favor of domestic locations.

Watch: Japanese denim is costly, but it's considered one of the best denims in the world. Here's why.

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