tourism in government sector

Reimagining the $9 trillion tourism economy—what will it take?

Tourism made up 10 percent of global GDP in 2019 and was worth almost $9 trillion, 1 See “Economic impact reports,” World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), wttc.org. making the sector nearly three times larger than agriculture. However, the tourism value chain of suppliers and intermediaries has always been fragmented, with limited coordination among the small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) that make up a large portion of the sector. Governments have generally played a limited role in the industry, with partial oversight and light-touch management.

COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented crisis for the tourism industry. International tourist arrivals are projected to plunge by 60 to 80 percent in 2020, and tourism spending is not likely to return to precrisis levels until 2024. This puts as many as 120 million jobs at risk. 2 “International tourist numbers could fall 60-80% in 2020, UNWTO reports,” World Tourism Organization, May 7, 2020, unwto.org.

Reopening tourism-related businesses and managing their recovery in a way that is safe, attractive for tourists, and economically viable will require coordination at a level not seen before. The public sector may be best placed to oversee this process in the context of the fragmented SME ecosystem, large state-owned enterprises controlling entry points, and the increasing impact of health-related agencies. As borders start reopening and interest in leisure rebounds in some regions , governments could take the opportunity to rethink their role within tourism, thereby potentially both assisting in the sector’s recovery and strengthening it in the long term.

In this article, we suggest four ways in which governments can reimagine their role in the tourism sector in the context of COVID-19.

1. Streamlining public–private interfaces through a tourism nerve center

Before COVID-19, most tourism ministries and authorities focused on destination marketing, industry promotions, and research. Many are now dealing with a raft of new regulations, stimulus programs, and protocols. They are also dealing with uncertainty around demand forecasting, and the decisions they make around which assets—such as airports—to reopen will have a major impact on the safety of tourists and sector employees.

Coordination between the public and private sectors in tourism was already complex prior to COVID-19. In the United Kingdom, for example, tourism falls within the remit of two departments—the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)—which interact with other government agencies and the private sector at several points. Complex coordination structures often make clarity and consistency difficult. These issues are exacerbated by the degree of coordination that will be required by the tourism sector in the aftermath of the crisis, both across government agencies (for example, between the ministries responsible for transport, tourism, and health), and between the government and private-sector players (such as for implementing protocols, syncing financial aid, and reopening assets).

Concentrating crucial leadership into a central nerve center  is a crisis management response many organizations have deployed in similar situations. Tourism nerve centers, which bring together public, private, and semi-private players into project teams to address five themes, could provide an active collaboration framework that is particularly suited to the diverse stakeholders within the tourism sector (Exhibit 1).

We analyzed stimulus packages across 24 economies, 3 Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. which totaled nearly $100 billion in funds dedicated directly to the tourism sector, and close to $300 billion including cross-sector packages with a heavy tourism footprint. This stimulus was generally provided by multiple entities and government departments, and few countries had a single integrated view on beneficiaries and losers. We conducted surveys on how effective the public-sector response has been and found that two-thirds of tourism players were either unaware of the measures taken by government or felt they did not have sufficient impact. Given uncertainty about the timing and speed of the tourism recovery, obtaining quick feedback and redeploying funds will be critical to ensuring that stimulus packages have maximum impact.

2. Experimenting with new financing mechanisms

Most of the $100 billion stimulus that we analyzed was structured as grants, debt relief, and aid to SMEs and airlines. New Zealand has offered an NZ $15,000 (US $10,000) grant per SME to cover wages, for example, while Singapore has instituted an 8 percent cash grant on the gross monthly wages of local employees. Japan has waived the debt of small companies where income dropped more than 20 percent. In Germany, companies can use state-sponsored work-sharing schemes for up to six months, and the government provides an income replacement rate of 60 percent.

Our forecasts indicate that it will take four to seven years for tourism demand to return to 2019 levels, which means that overcapacity will be the new normal in the medium term. This prolonged period of low demand means that the way tourism is financed needs to change. The aforementioned types of policies are expensive and will be difficult for governments to sustain over multiple years. They also might not go far enough. A recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey of SMEs in the tourism sector suggested more than half would not survive the next few months, and the failure of businesses on anything like this scale would put the recovery far behind even the most conservative forecasts. 4 See Tourism policy responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19), OECD, June 2020, oecd.org. Governments and the private sector should be investigating new, innovative financing measures.

Revenue-pooling structures for hotels

One option would be the creation of revenue-pooling structures, which could help asset owners and operators, especially SMEs, to manage variable costs and losses moving forward. Hotels competing for the same segment in the same district, such as a beach strip, could have an incentive to pool revenues and losses while operating at reduced capacity. Instead of having all hotels operating at 20 to 40 percent occupancy, a subset of hotels could operate at a higher occupancy rate and share the revenue with the remainder. This would allow hotels to optimize variable costs and reduce the need for government stimulus. Non-operating hotels could channel stimulus funds into refurbishments or other investment, which would boost the destination’s attractiveness. Governments will need to be the intermediary between businesses through auditing or escrow accounts in this model.

Joint equity funds for small and medium-size enterprises

Government-backed equity funds could also be used to deploy private capital to help ensure that tourism-related SMEs survive the crisis (Exhibit 2). This principle underpins the European Commission’s temporary framework for recapitalization of state-aided enterprises, which provided an estimated €1.9 trillion in aid to the EU economy between March and May 2020. 5 See “State aid: Commission expands temporary framework to recapitalisation and subordinated debt measures to further support the economy in the context of the coronavirus outbreak,” European Commission, May 8, 2020, ec.europa.eu. Applying such a mechanism to SMEs would require creating an appropriate equity-holding structure, or securitizing equity stakes in multiple SMEs at once, reducing the overall risk profile for the investor. In addition, developing a standardized valuation methodology would avoid lengthy due diligence processes on each asset. Governments that do not have the resources to co-invest could limit their role to setting up those structures and opening them to potential private investors.

3. Ensuring transparent, consistent communication on protocols

The return of tourism demand requires that travelers and tourism-sector employees feel—and are—safe. Although international organizations such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) have developed a set of guidelines to serve as a baseline, local regulators are layering additional measures on top. This leads to low levels of harmonization regarding regulations imposed by local governments.

Our surveys of traveler confidence in the United States  suggests anxiety remains high, and authorities and destination managers must work to ensure travelers know about, and feel reassured by, protocols put in place for their protection. Our latest survey of traveler sentiment in China  suggests a significant gap between how confident travelers would like to feel and how confident they actually feel; actual confidence in safety is much lower than the expected level asked a month before.

One reason for this low level of confidence is confusion over the safety measures that are currently in place. Communication is therefore key to bolstering demand. Experience in Europe indicates that prompt, transparent, consistent communications from public agencies have had a similar impact on traveler demand as CEO announcements have on stock prices. Clear, credible announcements regarding the removal of travel restrictions have already led to increased air-travel searches and bookings. In the week that governments announced the removal of travel bans to a number of European summer destinations, for example, outbound air travel web search volumes recently exceeded precrisis levels by more than 20 percent in some countries.

The case of Greece helps illustrate the importance of clear and consistent communication. Greece was one of the first EU countries to announce the date of, and conditions and protocols for, border reopening. Since that announcement, Greece’s disease incidence has remained steady and there have been no changes to the announced protocols. The result: our joint research with trivago shows that Greece is now among the top five summer destinations for German travelers for the first time. In July and August, Greece will reach inbound airline ticketing levels that are approximately 50 percent of that achieved in the same period last year. This exceeds the rate in most other European summer destinations, including Croatia (35 percent), Portugal (around 30 percent), and Spain (around 40 percent). 6 Based on IATA Air Travel Pulse by McKinsey. In contrast, some destinations that have had inconsistent communications around the time frame of reopening have shown net cancellations of flights for June and July. Even for the high seasons toward the end of the year, inbound air travel ticketing barely reaches 30 percent of 2019 volumes.

Digital solutions can be an effective tool to bridge communication and to create consistency on protocols between governments and the private sector. In China, the health QR code system, which reflects past travel history and contact with infected people, is being widely used during the reopening stage. Travelers have to show their green, government-issued QR code before entering airports, hotels, and attractions. The code is also required for preflight check-in and, at certain destination airports, after landing.

4. Enabling a digital and analytics transformation within the tourism sector

Data sources and forecasts have shifted, and proliferated, in the crisis. Last year’s demand prediction models are no longer relevant, leaving many destinations struggling to understand how demand will evolve, and therefore how to manage supply. Uncertainty over the speed and shape of the recovery means that segmentation and marketing budgets, historically reassessed every few years, now need to be updated every few months. The tourism sector needs to undergo an analytics transformation to enable the coordination of marketing budgets, sector promotions, and calendars of events, and to ensure that products are marketed to the right population segment at the right time.

Governments have an opportunity to reimagine their roles in providing data infrastructure and capabilities to the tourism sector, and to investigate new and innovative operating models. This was already underway in some destinations before COVID-19. Singapore, for example, made heavy investments in its data and analytics stack over the past decade through the Singapore Tourism Analytics Network (STAN), which provided tourism players with visitor arrival statistics, passenger profiling, spending data, revenue data, and extensive customer-experience surveys. During the COVID-19 pandemic, real-time data on leading travel indicators and “nowcasts” (forecasts for the coming weeks and months) could be invaluable to inform the decisions of both public-sector and private-sector entities.

This analytics transformation will also help to address the digital gap that was evident in tourism even before the crisis. Digital services are vital for travelers: in 2019, more than 40 percent of US travelers used mobile devices to book their trips. 7 Global Digital Traveler Research 2019, Travelport, marketing.cloud.travelport.com; “Mobile travel trends 2019 in the words of industry experts,” blog entry by David MacHale, December 11, 2018, blog.digital.travelport.com. In Europe and the United States, as many as 60 percent of travel bookings are digital, and online travel agents can have a market share as high as 50 percent, particularly for smaller independent hotels. 8 Sean O’Neill, “Coronavirus upheaval prompts independent hotels to look at management company startups,” Skift, May 11, 2020, skift.com. COVID-19 is likely to accelerate the shift to digital as travelers look for flexibility and booking lead times shorten: more than 90 percent of recent trips in China  were booked within seven days of the trip itself. Many tourism businesses have struggled to keep pace with changing consumer preferences around digital. In particular, many tourism SMEs have not been fully able to integrate new digital capabilities in the way that larger businesses have, with barriers including language issues, and low levels of digital fluency. The commission rates on existing platforms, which range from 10 percent for larger hotel brands to 25 percent for independent hotels, also make it difficult for SMEs to compete in the digital space.

Governments are well-positioned to overcome the digital gap within the sector and to level the playing field for SMEs. The Tourism Exchange Australia (TXA) platform, which was created by the Australian government, is an example of enabling at scale. It acts as a matchmaker, connecting suppliers with distributors and intermediaries to create packages attractive to a specific segment of tourists, then uses tourist engagement to provide further analytical insights to travel intermediaries (Exhibit 3). This mechanism allows online travel agents to diversify their offerings by providing more experiences away from the beaten track, which both adds to Australia’s destination attractiveness, and gives small suppliers better access to customers.

Governments that seize the opportunity to reimagine tourism operations and oversight will be well positioned to steer their national tourism industries safely into—and set them up to thrive within—the next normal.

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Margaux Constantin is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Dubai office, Steve Saxon is a partner in the Shanghai office, and Jackey Yu  is an associate partner in the Hong Kong office.

The authors wish to thank Hugo Espirito Santo, Urs Binggeli, Jonathan Steinbach, Yassir Zouaoui, Rebecca Stone, and Ninan Chacko for their contributions to this article.

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The tourism sector provides opportunities for developing countries to create productive and inclusive jobs, grow innovative firms, finance the conservation of natural and cultural assets, and increase economic empowerment, especially for women, who comprise the majority of the tourism sector’s workforce. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism was the world’s largest service sector—providing one in ten jobs worldwide,  almost seven percent of all international trade and  25 percent of the world’s service exports —a critical foreign exchange generator.  In 2019 the sector was valued at more than US$9 trillion and accounted for 10.4 percent of global GDP.

Tourism offers opportunities for economic diversification and market-creation. When effectively managed, its deep local value chains can expand demand for existing and new products and services that directly and positively impact the poor and rural/isolated communities. The sector can also be a force for biodiversity conservation, heritage protection, and climate-friendly livelihoods, making up a key pillar of the blue/green economy. This potential is also associated with social and environmental risks, which need to be managed and mitigated to maximize the sector’s net-positive benefits.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for tourism service providers, with a loss of 20 percent of all tourism jobs (62 million), and US$1.3 trillion in export revenue, leading to a reduction of 50 percent of its  contribution to GDP  in 2020 alone. The collapse of demand has severely impacted the livelihoods of tourism-dependent communities, small businesses and women-run enterprises. It has also reduced government tax revenues and constrained the availability of resources for destination management and site conservation.

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Our solutions are integrated across the following areas:

• Competitive and Productive Tourism Markets. We work with government and private sector stakeholders to foster competitive tourism markets that create productive jobs, improve visitor expenditure and impact, and are supportive of high-growth, innovative firms. To do so we offer guidance on firm and destination level recovery, policy and regulatory reforms, demand diversification, investment promotion and market access. 
• Blue, Green and Resilient Tourism Economies. We support economic diversification to sustain natural capital and tourism assets, prepare for external and climate-related shocks, and be sustainably managed through strong policy, coordination, and governance improvements. To do so we offer support to align the tourism enabling and policy environment towards sustainability, while improving tourism destination and site planning, development, and management. We work with governments to enhance the sector’s resilience and to foster the development of innovative sustainable financing instruments.
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Examples of our projects:

• In Indonesia , a US$955m loan is supporting the Government’s Integrated Infrastructure Development for National Tourism Strategic Areas Project. This project is designed to improve the quality of, and access to, tourism-relevant basic infrastructure and services, strengthen local economy linkages to tourism, and attract private investment in selected tourism destinations. In its initial phases, the project has supported detailed market and demand analyses needed to justify significant public investment, mobilized integrated tourism destination masterplans for each new destination and established essential coordination mechanisms at the national level and at all seventeen of the Project’s participating districts and cities.
• In Madagascar , a series of projects totaling US$450m in lending and IFC Technical Assistance have contributed to the sustainable growth of the tourism sector by enhancing access to enabling infrastructure and services in target regions. Activities under the project focused on providing support to SMEs, capacity building to institutions, and promoting investment and enabling environment reforms. They resulted in the creation of more than 10,000 jobs and the registration of more than 30,000 businesses. As a result of COVID-19, the project provided emergency support both to government institutions (i.e., Ministry of Tourism) and other organizations such as the National Tourism Promotion Board to plan, strategize and implement initiatives to address effects of the pandemic and support the sector’s gradual relaunch, as well as to directly support tourism companies and workers groups most affected by the crisis. 
• In Sierra Leone , an Economic Diversification Project has a strong focus on sustainable tourism development.  The project is contributing significantly to the COVID-19 recovery, with its focus on the creation of six new tourism destinations, attracting new private investment, and building the capacity of government ministries to successfully manage and market their tourism assets.  This project aims to contribute to the development of more circular economy tourism business models, and support the growth of women- run tourism businesses.  
• Through the Rebuilding Tourism Competitiveness: Tourism Response, Recovery and Resilience to the COVID-19 Crisis initiative and the Tourism for Development Learning Series , we held webinars, published insights and guidance notes as well as formed new partnerships with Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, United Nations Environment Program, United Nations World Tourism Organization, and World Travel and Tourism Council to exchange knowledge on managing tourism throughout the pandemic, planning for recovery and building back better. The initiative’s key Policy Note has been downloaded more than 20,000 times and has been used to inform recovery initiatives in over 30 countries across 6 regions.
• The Global Aviation Dashboard  is a platform that visualizes real-time changes in global flight movements, allowing users to generate 2D & 3D visualizations, charts, graphs, and tables; and ranking animations for: flight volume, seat volume, and available seat kilometers.  Data is available for domestic, intra-regional, and inter-regional routes across all regions, countries, airports, and airlines on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis from January 2020 until today. The dashboard has been used to track the status and recovery of global travel and inform policy and operational actions.

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Stay up to date:, the great reset.

• Tourism rose to the forefront of the global agenda in 2020, due to the devastating impact of COVID-19
• Recovery will be driven by technology and innovation – specifically seamless travel solutions, but it will be long, uneven and slow
• Success hinges on international coordination and collaboration across the public and private sectors

Tourism was one of the sectors hit hardest by the global pandemic. 2020 was the worst year on record for international travel due to the global pandemic, with countries taking decisive action to protect their citizens, closing borders and halting international travel.

The result was a 74% decline in international visitor arrivals, equivalent to over $1 trillion revenue losses , and an estimated 62 million fewer jobs . The impact on international air travel has been even more severe with a 90% drop on 2019 , resulting in a potential $1.8 trillion loss. And while the economic impact is dire in itself, nearly 2.9 million lives have been lost in the pandemic.

The path to recovery will be long and slow

Countries now face the challenge of reopening borders to resume travel and commerce, while protecting their populations’ health. At its peak, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported in April 2020 that every country on earth had implemented some travel restriction , signalling the magnitude of the operation to restart travel.

Have you read?

Tourism industry experts fear long road to recovery, how we can prioritize sustainability in rebuilding tourism, covid-19 could set the global tourism industry back 20 years.

Consequently, the path to recovery will be long and slow. The resurgence of cases following the discovery of new variants towards the end of last year delivered another disappointing blow to the travel industry. Any pickup over the summer months was quashed following a second wave of lockdowns and border closures . Coupled with mixed progress in the roll-out of vaccination programs, I predict that we will not see a significant rebound in international travel until the middle of this year at best.

Others echo my fears. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts a 50.4% improvement on 2020 air travel demand, which would bring the industry to 50.6% of 2019 levels . However, a more pessimistic outlook based on the persistence of travel restrictions suggests that demand may only pick up by 13% this year, leaving the industry at 38% of 2019 levels. McKinsey & Company similarly predict that tourism expenditure may not return to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024 .

How to enhance sustainability, inclusivity and resilience

Given its economic might – employing 330 million people, contributing 10% to global GDP before the pandemic, and predicted to create 100 million new jobs – restoring the travel and tourism sector to a position of strength is the utmost priority.

The Great Reset provides an opportunity to rethink how tourism is delivered and to enhance sustainability, inclusivity and resilience. We must also address the challenges – from climate change and “ overtourism ” to capacity constraints – that we faced before the pandemic, while embracing traveller preferences, as we rebuild.

A 2018 study found that global tourism accounted for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions from 2009 to 2013 ; four times higher than previous estimates. Even more worryingly, this puts progress towards the Paris Agreement at risk – recovery efforts must centre around environmental sustainability.

Furthermore, according to a study on managing overcrowding, the top 20 most popular global destinations were predicted to add more international arrivals than the rest of the world combined by 2020 . While COVID-19 will have disrupted this trend, it is well known that consumers want to travel again, and we must address the issues associated with overcrowding, especially in nascent destinations, like Saudi Arabia.

The Great Reset is a chance to make sure that as we rebuild, we do it better.

Seamless solutions lie at the heart of travel recovery

Tourism has the potential to be an engine of economic recovery provided we work collaboratively to adopt a common approach to a safe and secure reopening process – and conversations on this are already underway.

Through the G20, which Saudi Arabia hosted in 2020, our discussions focused on how to leverage technology and innovation in response to the crisis, as well as how to restore traveller confidence and improve the passenger experience in the future .

At the global level, across the public and private sectors, the World Economic Forum is working with the Commons Project on the CommonPass framework , which will allow individuals to access lab results and vaccination records, and consent to having that information used to validate their COVID status. IATA is trialling the Travel Pass with airlines and governments , which seeks to be a global and standardized solution to validate and authenticate all country regulations regarding COVID-19 travel requirements.

The provision of solutions that minimize person-to-person contact responds to consumer wants, with IATA finding that 85% of travellers would feel safer with touchless processing . Furthermore, 44% said they would share personal data to enable this, up from 30% months prior , showing a growing trend for contactless travel processes.

Such solutions will be critical in coordinating the opening of international borders in a way that is safe, seamless and secure, while giving tourists the confidence to travel again.

Collaboration at the international level is critical

The availability of vaccines will make this easier, and we have commenced our vaccination programme in Saudi Arabia . But we need to ensure processes and protocols are aligned globally, and that we support countries with limited access to vaccinations to eliminate the threat of another resurgence. It is only when businesses and travellers have confidence in the systems that the sector will flourish again.

In an era of unprecedented data and ubiquitous intelligence, it is essential that organizations reimagine how they manage personal data and digital identities. By empowering individuals and offering them ways to control their own data, user-centric digital identities enable trusted physical and digital interactions – from government services or e-payments to health credentials, safe mobility or employment.

The World Economic Forum curates the Platform for Good Digital Identity to advance global digital identity activities that are collaborative and put the user interest at the center.

The Forum convenes public-private digital identity collaborations from travel, health, financial services in a global action and learning network – to understand common challenges and capture solutions useful to support current and future coalitions. Additionally, industry-specific models such as Known Traveller Digital Identity or decentralized identity models show that digital identity solutions respecting the individual are possible.

The approach taken by Saudi Arabia and its partners to establish consensus and build collaborative relationships internationally and between the public and private sectors, should serve as a model to be replicated so that we can maximize the tourism sector’s contribution to the global economic recovery, while ensuring that it becomes a driver of prosperity and social progress again.

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Tourism’s Importance for Growth Highlighted in World Economic Outlook Report

• All Regions
• 10 Nov 2023

Tourism has again been identified as a key driver of economic recovery and growth in a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With UNWTO data pointing to a return to 95% of pre-pandemic tourist numbers by the end of the year in the best case scenario, the IMF report outlines the positive impact the sector’s rapid recovery will have on certain economies worldwide.

According to the World Economic Outlook (WEO) Report , the global economy will grow an estimated 3.0% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024. While this is higher than previous forecasts, it is nevertheless below the 3.5% rate of growth recorded in 2022, pointing to the continued impacts of the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and from the cost-of-living crisis.

Tourism key sector for growth

The WEO report analyses economic growth in every global region, connecting performance with key sectors, including tourism. Notably, those economies with "large travel and tourism sectors" show strong economic resilience and robust levels of economic activity. More specifically, countries where tourism represents a high percentage of GDP   have recorded faster recovery from the impacts of the pandemic in comparison to economies where tourism is not a significant sector.

As the report Foreword notes: "Strong demand for services has supported service-oriented economies—including important tourism destinations such as France and Spain".

Looking Ahead

The latest outlook from the IMF comes on the back of UNWTO's most recent analysis of the prospects for tourism, at the global and regional levels. Pending the release of the November 2023 World Tourism Barometer , international tourism is on track to reach 80% to 95% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023. Prospects for September-December 2023 point to continued recovery, driven by the still pent-up demand and increased air connectivity particularly in Asia and the Pacific where recovery is still subdued.

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• IMF World Economic Outlook

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Travel and Tourism

Travel and tourism satellite account for 2018-2022.

The travel and tourism industry—as measured by the real output of goods and services sold directly to visitors—increased 21.0 percent in 2022 after increasing 53.6 percent in 2021, according to the most recent statistics from BEA’s Travel and Tourism Satellite Account.

Data & Articles

• U.S. Travel and Tourism Satellite Account for 2018–2022 By Hunter Arcand and Paul Kern - Survey of Current Business April 2024
• "U.S. Travel and Tourism Satellite Account for 2015–2019" By Sarah Osborne - Survey of Current Business December 2020
• "U.S. Travel and Tourism Satellite Account for 2015-2017" By Sarah Osborne and Seth Markowitz - Survey of Current Business June 2018
• Tourism Satellite Accounts 1998-2019
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Measures how much tourists spend and the prices they pay for lodging, airfare, souvenirs, and other travel-related items. These statistics also provide a snapshot of employment in the travel and tourism industries.

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Future Changes and Challenges for Post-Covid-19 Tourism

• First Online: 29 April 2024

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• Anna Trono 4  

In conformity with the priorities established in the UNWTO’s global guidelines, today more than ever, the recovery of the tourism sector can contribute to the development and implementation of plans that serve the sustainable development objectives laid out in Agenda 2030. The new tourism sector will thus have a responsible vision of the objectives in terms of public health, social inclusion, conservation of biodiversity, climate safeguards, the circular economy, good governance and sustainable finance. The current vulnerability of tourism could thus create the conditions for a recalibration of the world economic structure, contributing to recovery plans on a broader scale. Like all crises, the current one also represents an opportunity, in this case to accelerate the creation of sustainable tourism models. The resilience of this tourism will depend on the sector’s ability to balance the needs of communities and the planet with the socio-economic advantages it generates.

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Trono, A. (2024). Future Changes and Challenges for Post-Covid-19 Tourism. In: Trono, A., Castronuovo, V., Kosmas, P. (eds) Managing Natural and Cultural Heritage for a Durable Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52041-9_5

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Government commitment to tourism and hospitality sector during COVID-19 pandemic

Tourism Critiques

ISSN : 2633-1225

Article publication date: 8 July 2021

Issue publication date: 7 December 2021

The purpose of this study is to explore the tourism policy commitment of the government of Uzbekistan to bring back the tourists and sustain the tourism and hospitality sector during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study employed qualitative documentary research methodology using the thematic analysis with the support of the Nvivo 12 to analyze Google news articles published in the English language. The results demonstrated that the government of Uzbekistan employed a variety of policies and measures geared towards tourists and businesses during the pandemic. Mainly, the government showed confidence and trust in its policies by providing financial compensation to tourists if they get the Covid-19 infection, improved sanitary conditions and travel restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus. In terms of businesses, the government was dedicated to restoring and mitigating the adverse outcomes of Covid-19 in the tourism and hospitality sector by providing subsidies and certification that the company is following the sanitary protocols. The findings of this study illustrate that the government of Uzbekistan should continue feeding the media with the information related to strategies implemented towards reviving the tourism and hospitality sector, which will build the confidence of the tourists and businesses during the pandemic period.

• Hospitality
• Government of Uzbekistan
• Tourism messages
• Tourism policies

Allaberganov, A. , Preko, A. and Mohammed, I. (2021), "Government commitment to tourism and hospitality sector during COVID-19 pandemic", Tourism Critiques , Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 153-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/TRC-02-2021-0004

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Copyright © 2021, Azizbek Allaberganov, Alexander Preko and Iddrisu Mohammed.

Published in Tourism Critiques: Practice and Theory . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, as many as 96% of the world travel destinations, consistent across the continents, have imposed some form of travel restrictions to contain the spread of the virus. Some of the major restrictions that were implemented by various governments were partial or complete border shutdowns, destination-specific restrictions and self-quarantine for a number of days ( UNWTO, 2020b ). Because of these restrictions, many sectors of the economy in countless countries were challenged and among the highly impacted ones were the tourism and hospitality industry. According to the UNWTO’s (2020a) statistics on the international travel industry, in the first 10 months of 2020, international travel decreased by 900 million travelers equaling to a loss of $935bn in export revenue worldwide, surpassing the losses of the world economic crisis in 2009. It is expected that the rebound of the tourism and hospitality sector will most likely occur in the second half of 2021; however, full recovery is forecasted to take up to four years.

To identify the specific tourism policies that were undertaken by the government to bring back the tourists to destination sites.

To explore the support provided to the businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector by the government.

To understand the overall key tourism messages delivered by the government of Uzbekistan to the tourists and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The motivation for conducting this study is threefold. First, as various stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality sector are using strategies to attract the tourists back into the hospitality business ( Gursoy et al. , 2020 ), more research is called to study the significance and the effectiveness of these approaches ( Gursoy and Chi, 2020 ). Second, Uzbekistan, as one of the many fastest-growing tourism destinations prior to the COVID-19 outbreak ( WTTC , 2020a, 2020b ), was also severely impacted by this pandemic. The country officially acknowledged its first cases of COVID-19 on March 15, 2020, and restrictions on public gatherings and international travel were followed ( US Embassy, 2020 ). To restore the tourism and hospitality sector, the Uzbek Government has launched various steps that were aimed to support the struggling businesses, as well as an initiative geared toward increasing the international tourists’ confidence in the country as a safe travel destination such as “Uzbekistan. Safe travel GUARANTEED” ( Uzbekistan, 2021 ). The third perspective, the government is actively engaged in promoting tourism and hospitality during the pandemic, this is because tourism is an important and growing sector of the country’s economy, comprising 2.61% of the GDP in 2018 increasing from 0.71% in 2016 ( The Global Economy, 2020 ). Indeed, investigating the government’s policies and approach in managing the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality sector in Uzbekistan is imperative. The findings of this study will assist the practitioners, businesses, managers, investors, tourists and policymakers in the tourism and hospitality sector with the necessary information to understand the government’s message and dedication toward the industry and guide them to formulate crucial strategies to mitigate this health crisis.

This study first presents the literature review on the tourism context of Uzbekistan, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism and hospitality sector, the response to this crisis by the government and the news articles in tourism research. Next, anchored in the stand-alone documentary research method (DRM), the methodology applied by this study will be discussed, followed by the analysis of the result. Finally, the study ends with the discussion and the recommendation based on the outcome of this research.

Literature review

Contextual background of tourism in uzbekistan.

Located in the heart of Central Asia, Uzbekistan has been actively pursuing the development of its tourism and hospitality sector since its inception in 1991 ( Sha and Cekuta, 2018 ). The country possesses attractive tourism destinations such as UNESCO-listed unique and historical towns of Bukhara, Samarqand, Itchan Kala and Shakhrisabz ( Airey and Shackley, 1997 ) as well as sport-related leisure activities and pilgrimage sites ( Kantarci, 2014 ) to potential international and domestic tourists. International tourists all around the world are motived to visit Uzbekistan to witness these historical attractions and the adventure that the country provides ( Allaberganov and Preko, 2021 ).

In 2016, various reforms and improvement policies were used in Uzbekistan to improve the tourism and hospitality sector further. First, to eliminate the obstacles encountered before traveling to Uzbekistan, the country abolished the old visa procedures and began introducing electronic visas (e-visas) for a single stay of 30 days ( UzReport, 2018 ). Second, as transportation is an essential element of the travel and tourism sector, Uzbekistan has executed measures to improve its aviation industry and further travel routes were opened with additional 39 countries ( Sha and Cekuta, 2018 ). As an outcome of these policy change reforms, the inbound tourists’ volume in Uzbekistan has increased. For instance, in 2019 alone, approximately 6,748,500 tourists visited Uzbekistan equaling to US$1,313,032 of tourism service export, an increase from 5,346,200 visitors in 2018 ( UzDaily, 2020 ).

Similar to other global tourism destinations, Uzbekistan was not spared from the economic consequences of COVID-19. The Uzbek Government acknowledged and confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 15, 2020 and, as of March 20, 2021, there are 81,221 COVID-19 cases and 622 deaths ( Worldometers, 2021 ). The Uzbek policymakers launched various programs as a preventive measure to contain the spread of the virus such as restrictions of movement and border controls ( US Embassy, 2020 ), which ultimately led to socio-economic challenges in the country. The tourism and hospitality sector suffered the most, for instance, because of travel restrictions, inbound tourist arrivals in Uzbekistan decreased by a whopping 60% compared to the same figures in 2019 ( Kun.uz, 2020 ). On January 19, 2020, to combat the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and ensure its revival, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree aimed at restoring the tourism and hospitality sector in the country with strict observance of sanitation and safety protocols. To attract the tourists further, “Uzbekistan. Safe travel GUARANTEED” program was introduced by the government to ensure the tourists traveling in Uzbekistan are safe and all the sanitary and safety measures are followed ( Uzbekistan, 2021 ). Truly, the government’s role in the survival of the tourism and hospitality sector and its ultimate recovery is of utmost importance. The survival of the tourism industry will revitalize, promote destination image and brand the country among the world tourist destinations. Marketing the destination image and branding are important ingredients to the growth of the tourism industry ( Lam and Ryan, 2020 ). To fulfill this knowledge gap, this study aims at uncovering the news articles related to the government’s policy and commitment in support of its tourism and hospitality sector to have an overall understanding of the message and the strategies used by Uzbekistan.

Tourism during COVID-19

The international travel and tourism sector is sensitive and highly influenced by external factors such as political instability, social and economic risks and environmental disasters ( Novelli et al. , 2018 ; Preko , 2020a, 2020b ), and the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 is no different ( Sigala, 2020 ). Initially, the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality sector was largely underestimated by the policymakers and stakeholder and the magnitudes of this crisis can be unprecedented ( Škare et al. , 2020 ). As countries began to impose travel restrictions in the form of border controls and travel bans to contain the viral outbreak ( UNWTO, 2020b ), tourism and hospitality sector took a worldwide hit ( Kreiner and Ram, 2020 ; Sharma et al. , 2020 ) as the number of travelers began to decline.

In Malaysia, for instance, because of restrictions such as border controls and travel bans, many tours were canceled as a big portion of the travelers originated from China ( Foo et al. , 2020 ). With a record of 26 million tourists and ranking 15th in the world in 2018 ( WorldData, 2020 ), Malaysia was expecting another promising tourism season in 2020. However, with the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy, Malaysia was one of the hardest-hit tourism destinations. As many as 3.5 million people could be affected in the tourism sector of Malaysia and it is predicted that 60% of the country’s tourism businesses can be eliminated ( Bethke, 2020 ). Likewise, Chinese tourism and hospitality has also suffered tremendously from the COVID-19 pandemic. Countless tours were canceled in China and Chinese tourists were banned because of border controls to enter many destinations because of fear of the virus, putting a paramount stress on international and domestic tourism in the country ( Hoque et al. , 2020 ). For instance, according to the China Tourism Academy, domestic tourism revenue is expected to decline by 52% equaling to the US$394bn in 2020 ( Reuters, 2020 ). A similar case can be observed in India, another rising star in the tourism and hospitality industry. Because of the decline in international travel, overall job opportunities and regional development, as well as the country’s ability to raise foreign exchange earnings, were disrupted ( Jaipuria et al. , 2020 ). Consequently, it is forecasted that India could lose up to 40 million direct and indirect jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector, which amounts to the US$40bn ( FICCI, 2020 ). Further impacts of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality sector were discussed in Nepal ( Sah et al. , 2020 ), Ukraine ( Rutynskyi and Kushniruk, 2020 ), Bangladesh ( Deb and Nafi, 2020 ) and Indonesia ( Dinarto et al. , 2020 ).

COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the tourism and hospitality sector, having much more serious impact on the lower-income countries, and provided valuable lessons to the policymakers and stakeholders ( Gössling et al. , 2020 ). Ultimately, tourism and hospitality sector will rebound in the near future; however, the speed of recovery and to what extent the industry will resume its former glory is unknown ( Baum and Hai, 2020 ). As studying tourism and hospitality sector during a health-related crisis is essential ( Rivera, 2020 ), it creates the necessity to study the state response to tackle the impact of COVID-19 on the international travel and tourism sector of Uzbekistan. Findings of this study can enable a better understanding of the communication by the Government of Uzbekistan during the COVID-19 pandemic toward the tourism and hospitality sector, allowing the stakeholders, practitioners and business in this industry to formulate proper policies and strategies.

Government policies for tourism and hospitality sector during pandemic

As the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality is paramount, stakeholders and businesses in this sector are at risk, hence making the government support during this crisis essential ( OECD, 2020 ; Fong et al. , 2020 ). The pandemic has reduced the international travel, causing a huge blow to many international and local economies in the world, which is ultimately affecting the global economy overall ( Dupeyras et al. , 2020 ). For instance, because of pandemic and restrictions on movement, consumer-buying behavior changed dramatically, causing a 69% drop in purchase of non-essential items in Sub-Saharan Africa ( GeoPoll, 2020 ). As a result, a plethora of tourism-related businesses such as hotels, restaurants and airlines witnessed lower demand by tourists ( Nhamo et al. , 2020 ). World Travel and Tourism Council strongly encourages governments to formulate policies and programs to provide necessary support for the struggling tourism and hospitality sector by protecting the livelihood of the workers involved in this industry as well as laying out financial stimulus for the companies and businesses affected by this crisis ( WTTC , 2020a, 2020b ).

Many governments and their agencies have used measures to restore the tourism and hospitality sector such as communication with the industry, providing subsidies and improved health-care monitoring. For instance, in China, numerous policy measures were implemented to support the tourism sector by the government that varied from region to region. Eastern China, where the population is denser compared to other parts, emphasized mainly tax reduction and financial incentives whereas tourist protection and inspection was the primary objective of central regions ( Shao et al. , 2020 ). The neighboring country of Vietnam has also proposed several relief policies to support its struggling tourism and hospitality sectors. Some of the major communications by the Vietnamese state during the pandemic were the promotion of the domestic tourism in Vietnam, followed by reevaluation of the country’s visa policies as well as subsidies in the form of tax relief and financial support packages for the businesses in the tourism sphere ( Quang et al. , 2020 ).

It is evidenced that the tourism and hospitality sector is highly sensitive to global crisis such as COVID-19 ( Uğur and Akbıyık, 2020 ) and for the survival of this industry, clear communication and support by the state become ever more crucial ( Yeh, 2020 ). However, the survival of tourism and hospitality or its ultimate reemergence will likely vary from country to country. Some destinations might reevaluate their tourism sector and practices to become more sustainable without the immediate assistance of the state, whereas others will simply resume the regular course of business with the help of the government ( Hall et al. , 2020 ). There is a lack of studies on health crisis and tourism in the context of developing countries, creating a knowledge gap in the tourism and hospitality literature to explore the government’s role in managing the tourism and hospitality sector in Uzbekistan during the pandemic. Thus, following the literature, this study attempts to explore and analyze news articles to uncover the support provided to tourism and hospitality sector by the Government of Uzbekistan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

News articles in tourism research

As a document source, news articles are cheap and easily available for the researchers ( Mogalakwe, 2006 ) while playing an essential role in the tourism industry ( Chen et al. , 2020 ). The news coverage and articles can be detrimental in shaping the destination image while promoting the location to potential tourists. Practitioners are highly encouraged to feed the media constantly with crucial information to build the image of the location ( Gabbioneta and De Carlo, 2019 ). A plethora of previous studies have analyzed news articles in relation to the tourism and hospitality sector and the method is becoming popular in academic literature. For instance, Phi (2020) has used news articles analysis in the study of “overtourism” media coverage. Jun and Oh (2015) studied newspaper coverage of risks and benefits associated with medical tourism being serviced in Korea using 149 articles. Dioko and Harrill (2019) analyzed English news reports between 2000 and the first half of 2017 on tourism-related fatalities and injuries to provide effective management efforts for the practitioners in the field.

News articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic and tourism were evidenced in the media as well during the recent health crisis ( Şengel et al. , 2020 ). Seraphin and Dosquet (2020) used news source coverage of pandemic impact and how it is contributing to the development of home and mountain tourism. Chen et al. (2020) performed content analysis of Chinese news during the COVID-19 pandemic investigating newspaper articles to gain a deeper understanding of news coverage during the health crisis. These authors concluded by recommending that further studies on crisis response efficiency and people’s opinion during the outbreak are necessary. Thus, motivated by this, this study uses the Google News search engine to uncover published news articles in international media sources that are associated with the government approach in dealing with the tourism and hospitality recovery during and post-COVID-19 pandemic in Uzbekistan.

Methodology

This study uses a documentary qualitative method in analyzing news articles on Uzbek Government’s messages and strategies to bring back the tourists to sites during the COVID-19 pandemic. DRM is a procedure where printed and online materials are systematically reviewed and analyzed ( Bowen, 2009 ). This research method is not new and has been used in previous studies in tourism ( Chen et al. , 2020 ; Phi, 2020 ; Seraphin and Dosquet, 2020 ). Again, DRM is useful when the researcher wants to study documents that contain information regarding a phenomenon ( Bailey, 1994 ). Being under-used in science, DRM also has its own disadvantages such as lack of detail, difficulties associated with retrieving data and selection bias. However, because of its cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the advantages of using DRM outweigh its limitations ( Bowen, 2009 ). Following the merits that are suggested by Mogalakwe (2006) , DRM is highly cost-effective and as good as other research methods such as surveys and interviews, which usually include data from organizations, libraries, newspapers and online news.

The news articles analyzed in this study were extracted from Google News from April 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, covering nine months period (see Figure 1 ). To mine data, this study has used combined keywords such as “Uzbekistan,” “Tourism,” “Hospitality,” “Covid-19,” “Pandemic,” “Government approach,” “Strategies” and “Uzbek government.” The search resulted in articles about COVID-19 and tourism in Uzbekistan in the English language. Only news articles with the narrative of tourism and COVID-19 in Uzbekistan with rich content were considered and kept for this study. To ensure reliability and validity of the news articles, the united resource locators of the websites were checked and only sources from reliable media were used for analysis.

Overall, 49 newspaper articles were retrieved from the Google News search engines. Because of content and relation to the subject matter set forth in this study, only 40 news articles were useful and used for the analysis. All the news articles were compiled together in a table ( Table 1 ) with the indicative title of the article, the source of the document and the publication date. Following the recommendation of Braun and Clarke (2006) , thematic analysis was used in this study, where the articles were explored to search for common patterns by using NVivo 12 software. Authors first independently read each article thoroughly to be familiar with the texts. Next, common patterns that emerged were highlighted and coded in similar themes known as nodes. Nodes that were similar in content were grouped together and merged to develop larger themes. Next, to validate the findings, the authors compared their data and themes to reach the same conclusions. These stages allowed the researchers to validate their findings and to be consistent. In qualitative research, two or more researchers must reach the same conclusions after reviewing the same data ( Lazaraton, 2017 ).

The findings of the research showed that government strategies, supports and messages for businesses and tourists were relevant to the survival of the sector within the pandemic. The study’s analysis identified three major themes such as the government’s support for the return of the tourists, uplifting the difficulties associated with the pandemic on the businesses and overall message of the government to the stakeholders at large.

Government approach to return the tourists

Most of the news articles examined in the study illustrated interesting highlights in regards to the government’s approach in managing the tourism and hospitality sector in Uzbekistan during the pandemic. Based on the findings, the main strategies that were implemented by the Government of Uzbekistan to ensure the return of the tourists to the country were certification to businesses that they are following sanitary measures and ensuring strict adherence of sanitation protocols:

[…] Tourist sites and accommodation will also be required to gain certification from the government to ensure that they’re meeting the new standards of sanitary and epidemiological safety. (Emerging Europe)

The guides, hotels, and tourist sites will have to get a certification from the local government showing they are following all the virus safety guidelines. (Times of India)

Uzbekistan, a country of 33 million that has had just a small number of Covid-related deaths, wants to assure travelers they will not be infected with the coronavirus during their stay. (The New York Times)

“We want to reassure tourists they can come to Uzbekistan,” Sophie Ibbotson, Uzbekistan’s tourism ambassador to the UK, said in a statement. (Vice)

In addition to the increased sanitation and ensuring the trust of the travelers, Uzbek Government went even further by promising financial compensation for medical treatment for those who may end of getting the virus. This ultimately evidences that the Government of Uzbekistan was active in restoring its tourism industry as well as confident in its safety measure:

With countries currently trying to revive their tourism industries, Uzbekistan has come up with a very innovative solution that might pique the interest of travellers. Their newly-launched “Safe Travel Guaranteed” campaign provides $3,000 to anyone who gets the coronavirus while travelling in the country. (Outlook India)

Tourists sites have reopened with a new standardized set of hygiene regulations, and the government is backing these measures with a guarantee – should you arrive and contract COVID-19, they’ll offer up to $3,000 to cover medical expenses. (Conde Nest Traveller)

Finally, the Government of Uzbekistan imposed strict border regulations and movement of the tourists. To be specific, the government divided the country into red, yellow and green zones based on the number of COVID-19 infections. Regions with the green and yellow tags were allowed to receive tourists, while red zones were off-limits. A very similar strategy was followed with international flights and tourists. Countries with fewer coronavirus cases and stable sanitary status were allowed to travel to Uzbekistan, whereas 14-day quarantine was imposed on those regions with high COVID-19 cases:

Domestic travel in Uzbekistan has been permitted since June 1 for those journeying between “no or low-infection ‘green’ and ‘yellow’ zones.” International commercial flights will resume this month, with foreign visitors from “low-risk countries,” including China, Japan, South Korea, and Israel, being permitted entry without any restrictions or quarantines. (Daily Hive)

Uzbekistan, which has been divided into “green”, “yellow”, and “red” zones depending on the rates of newly detected COVID-19 cases, has already allowed the resumption of domestic tourism and soccer games without spectators, and domestic air flights and train services have resumed. (Reuters)

Government support to the businesses

The analysis highlighted some strategies to support the businesses during the pandemic implemented by the Government of Uzbekistan such as providing financial incentives in the form of tax holidays and loans as well as certification as a proof that the business is safe to conduct operations with the tourist:

Inbound tourism will be gradually restored to countries whose citizens are allowed to enter Uzbekistan, said the ministry, adding the decree also grants tax relief and other privileges for tour operators, travel agencies and hotels till the end of year. (Xinhua)

The stability package includes broad tax breaks and holidays for the economy, with the deepest breaks (estimated at 30%) to be given to the tourism industry; companies in the hospitality, catering and education industries being given a holiday on debt service until October 1, guaranteed by the government; UZS 500bn in loans/support made available to small and medium sized enterprises; and fast-tracking the implementation of infrastructure projects in the regions […] (Intellinews)

Overall message of the Government of Uzbekistan

It was evidenced in the analysis that the Government of Uzbekistan was highly involved and dedicated to managing the impact of the COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality sector. The findings show two key messages delivered by the government. First, the government was confident in its safety and sanitary measures being implemented in the country and was eager to win the trust of the travelers. Second, the Government of Uzbekistan was also dedicated to supporting and restoring the highly impacted tourism sector:

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s decree, signed on May 28, aims to take urgent measures to support the tourism industry, in an effort to mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic, the ministry said. (Xinhua)

When Uzbekistan launched its national guarantee to visitors, the destination’s tourism officials stressed they were so confident in their new safety and hygiene measures, the President was “prepared to put money where his mouth is.” (7News)

[…] the “Uzbekistan: Safe Travel Guaranteed” campaign is essentially an insurance against Covid, and signals that the destination is safe to visit, while also offering a financial incentive. (Fox Five)

Discussion and conclusion

The main purpose of this study was to explore the strategic tourism policies implemented by the Government of Uzbekistan during the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to tourists and businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector at large. The findings of this study are summarized in Figure 2 where the government’s main approach to tourists and businesses were dedication and confidence with the sub-themes of financial compensation, sanitary improvements, travel restrictions, stimulus package and certification. The study evidenced that Government of Uzbekistan is following the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s calls for tourism and hospitality sector support such as financial and political aid for the tourism recovery and mitigating the adverse effects of the pandemic ( UNWTO, 2020c ).

It was discovered that the Uzbek Government was highly focused and dedicated to the revival of the tourism and hospitality sector and implemented various measures to support and restore the businesses in the country. The major discoveries from the news article sources indicated supportive measures such as stimulus packages in the forms of tax breaks and debt services and certification to ensure tourists that the local business is following the sanitary protocols. This finding is in agreement with the previous study that policies related to tax breaks and subsidies are appropriate in handling crises ( Blake and Sinclair, 2003 ; de Sausmarez, 2004 ; Nhamo et al. , 2020 ). The findings of this study hold that stimulus packages and tax breaks geared toward supporting the local business demonstrate dedication toward the tourism and hospitality sector by the Government of Uzbekistan. Possibly, this is explained by the fact that the country sees its tourism and hospitality sector as an important factor in the economic growth and the country has been actively developing the sector ( Sha and Cekuta, 2018 ). In 2020, the contribution of tourism and hospitality to GDP in Uzbekistan was $1.6bn and the sector contributed 5.5% of the GDP growth ( Knoema, 2021 ).

In terms of tourists, the Uzbek Government implemented strict border controls, increased sanitary and safety measures, as well as financial compensation as a guarantee for the procedures used in the country. This is in line with the previous findings that tourists are affected by safety and security ( Preko , 2020a, 2020b ) and sanitation and hygiene of the facilities ( Naumov et al. , 2020 ). This indicates that the Government of Uzbekistan was willing and eager to increase the confidence of the tourists both domestic and international to resume their travels. Lastly, the overall message of the Government of Uzbekistan to its stakeholders was dedication to restore its tourism industry and confidence in its sanitary policies and measures. It can be evidenced that the Government of Uzbekistan was in line with guidelines recommended by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in terms of providing support to the business sector, ensuring the confidence of the travelers and supplying with clear information ( OECD, 2020 ).

To conclude, the study of tourism sustenance and the role that the governments play during the health crisis in the context of developing nations such as Uzbekistan is limited. Thus, this study attempted to extend the literature to contribute to the knowledge gap by investigating newspaper articles publicized online concerning the support provided by the Government of Uzbekistan in revival of the tourism and hospitality sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, which goes beyond the earlier studies. For instance, China and Vietnam provided various financial relief packages and improvement of sanitations ( Quang et al. , 2020 ; Shao et al. , 2020 ). In Uzbekistan, similar financial measures were also used to sustain the affected businesses; however, the government implemented further incentives and programs such as financial compensation to tourists to alleviate the hardships associated with the pandemic which were not found in the earlier literature. The finding of financial compensation for the tourists that might be infected by COVID-19 during the visit to Uzbekistan was one of the main contributions of this study, which differentiates this study from earlier studies ( Quang et al. , 2020 ; Shao et al. , 2020 ) in tourism policy literature. This difference can be because of contextual issues regarding the tourism and hospitality sector in these countries. Second, the study evidenced and confirmed the commitment level of government policies in the tourism and hospitality sector ( Preko , 2020a, 2020b ). Specifically, the government’s role in providing support to the struggling businesses in the tourism sector and restoring the confidence of the travelers in the safety measures used by the country were the key commitments identified in the study. Third, the study further confirmed the usefulness of online news articles in exploring the government’s commitments to the tourism and hospitality sector. This is also regarded as a contribution of this study to the documentary analysis literature within a developing tourism policy perspective in the Asian continent.

Finally, it was concluded that despite the fact that the Government of Uzbekistan has taken strong stance against the COVID-19 pandemic and implemented several measures to uplift the struggling businesses and companies in the tourism and hospitality sector, some shortfalls were noticed in the media coverage in the Google News search engine. There was a lack of information related to details and the monitoring process of the policies implemented by the Government of Uzbekistan toward the businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector. For instance, types of businesses that are eligible for support and the actual number of companies registered for the government support was limited in the sources. In addition, the extent of the aid provided for these stakeholders during the pandemic was not covered in detail. Furthermore, limited information on the steps and procedures to be taken to acquire the financial support for tourists who contract the virus during the visit to Uzbekistan was also evident. Thus, providing further detailed information on the process and the effectiveness of the support measures to uplift the difficulties experienced in the tourism and hospitality sector during the COVID-19 pandemic could foster increased confidence of the tourists as well as the businesses.

Implications

The findings of this study provide insights for policy and managerial recommendations to the policymakers in the tourism and hospitality sector. First, news coverage and media play an essential role in the tourism and hospitality sector ( Chen et al. , 2020 ) and can be detrimental to destination image ( Gabbioneta and De Carlo, 2019 ). Thus, the authors recommend continuing and further increasing the communication between the Government of Uzbekistan and the news sources and providing more information on sanitary and safety measures being implemented in the country. Next, supporting the businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic by the governments is crucial for their survival and restoration ( Fong et al. , 2020 ) and a priority must be given in providing information while limiting uncertainty ( OECD, 2020 ). As mentioned previously, there was a lack of information related to monitoring the process and ultimate effectiveness of the government policies toward the tourism and hospitality sector. Hence, it is highly encouraged for the Government of Uzbekistan to provide additional and detailed news coverage on the various financial and non-financial support provided to the local and international businesses operating in the country as well as updated information on the monitoring process and effectiveness of these support programs. For instance, providing an online list of companies that have certified for safety and sanitation protocols can be a starting point. As for the tourists, the authors highly recommend that the Government of Uzbekistan should take measures that are more diverse in its approach in attracting the visitors back to the country. Additional measures such as providing financial aid in the form of discounts on air tickets to travelers or hotel stays can alleviate some of the financial hardships faced by many tourists after the COVID-19 pandemic.

For managerial implications, useful insights can be gained from this study to use strategic measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Awareness and learning are essential in dealing with the pandemic to ensure safe travel and sustainable tourism ( Gössling et al. , 2020 ), and were poorly covered in the news articles. Thus, it is highly recommended that trainings and seminars on safety measures and sanitation protocols should be carried out to businesses and tour guides regularly by the government and highlighted in the media. Furthermore, businesses should pay attention to the media coverage of government policies toward the tourism and hospitality sector and develop innovative or sustainable tour packages that ensure safe and secure travel for their customers. This could also be strengthened by providing detailed media coverage or blogging on the package content and safety measures implemented. Truly, the role of the media and its content is essential in communication with the tourists and businesses, thus governments and businesses are strongly encouraged to continue and even increase feeding the newspapers with necessary information. The findings and discussion of this study provide useful insights for the stakeholders such as tourists, businesses, practitioners, policymakers, investors and managers to make key decisions and use adequate practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, all the implications are possible through the further successful collaboration of the key stakeholders and increased public awareness and education in the tourism and hospitality sector.

This study collected newspaper articles from the Google News search engine leading to one of the limitations in generalizing the findings. In a single study, not all the online news articles can be used; therefore, further studies are encouraged to incorporate other online news search engines such as Yahoo, LexisNexis and Microsoft Bing in a different or similar geographical context. The next limitation of this study is the utilization of newspaper articles released only in the English language. Further studies can explore news articles published in the local languages such as Uzbek and Russian to gain more insights into the government’s role in the tourism and hospitality sector. Further inquiry into the national tourism and hospitality state documents can also be valuable for future studies to gain detailed explanation on the steps taken by the Government of Uzbekistan in restoring the confidence of the travelers as well as businesses. Future studies can apply either quantitative or qualitative primary data to examine the effectiveness and the successful outcome of the government policies on the tourists and businesses both pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic as well as the response of the companies to the government’s approach toward the tourism and hospitality sector. Other areas are also available for future research and should focus on the number of tourists and businesses that have benefited from government initiatives as well as the number of businesses that have been monitored and certified according to the policy. Finally, this study did not aim at investigating the reaction of the local industry to the policies, but rather advanced the understanding of the government approach to bring back tourists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this area is also available for future research.

News article coverage of government approach in 2020

Government policies, messages and strategies

List of sources from Google News

Source: Authors’ collections (2021)

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Sharma , G.D. , Thomas , A. and Paul , J. ( 2020 ), “ Reviving tourism industry post-COVID-19: a resilience-based framework ”, Tourism Management Perspectives , Vol. 37 , p. 100786 .

Sigala , M. ( 2020 ), “ Tourism and COVID-19: impacts and implications for advancing and resetting industry and research ”, Journal of Business Research , Vol. 117 , pp. 312 - 321 .

Škare , M. , Soriano , D.R. and Porada-Rochoń , M. ( 2020 ), “ Impact of COVID-19 on the travel and tourism industry ”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change , Vol. 163 , p. 120469 .

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Uğur , N.G. and Akbıyık , A. ( 2020 ), “ Impacts of COVID-19 on global tourism industry: a cross-regional comparison ”, Tourism Management Perspectives , Vol. 36 , p. 100744 .

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UNWTO ( 2020b ), “ COVID-19 response: 96% of global destinations impose travel restrictions, UNWTO reports. [Online] ”, available at: www.unwto.org/news/covid-19-response-travel-restrictions ( accessed 5 January 2021 ).

UNWTO ( 2020c ), “ COVID-19: Putting people first. [Online] ”, available at: www.unwto.org/tourism-covid-19-2020#:∼:text=International%20Tourism%20Down%2070%25,first%20eight%20months%20of%202020 ( accessed 21 January 2021 ).

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Wang , D. and Ap , J. ( 2013 ), “ Factors affecting tourism policy implementation: a conceptual framework and a case study in China ”, Tourism Management , Vol. 36 No. 3 , pp. 221 - 233 .

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Further reading

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two proofreaders: Dr Theophilus Francis Gyepi-Garbrah and Veronica Adjei including the Editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments from which the present paper greatly improved.

Corresponding author

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Tourism and Development: the role of NGOs and the private sector

• Published: 21 November 2018
• Author: Ruhi Mukherji

This article is part of a series titled ‘Sustainable Tourism Asia: Solutions for Tourism + Hospitality’. Previous articles from the series are available at the end of the article. The tourism industry’s role as a significant contributor to both GDP generation and employment across the Asia Pacific region has significant implications for regional development. International organizations such as the  World Bank  assert that the implementation of sustainable tourism practices can promote development through improved livelihoods, female empowerment, and the preservation of cultural heritage and natural habitats across Asia.  Governmental regulations  across the region seek to strike a balance between promoting tourism as a means of stimulating development and mitigating the negative impacts of overtourism. Apart from governmental measures, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and leading companies are implementing initiatives to use tourism as a means of promoting sustainable development.

On November 29 th , leading companies from the hospitality and tourism sectors, along with government officials and NGOs, will gather at  Sustainable Tourism Asia  to address these issues and share best practices. Sessions will include:

• Sustainable tourism and development: Aligning social and economic strategies to promote shared value
• Tourism trends and policies: Tourism regulations impacting the private sector in Asia
• Responsible recruitment and labour practices: consideration of ethical employment practices within the industry, andWorkshops, providing participants with practical tools, including an overview of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council certification criteria

The following initiatives are programs undertaken by speakers at the Sustainable Tourism Asia forum, aiming at promoting tourism that accounts for economic, social, and environmental impacts upon host communities.

Friends-International’s Global Guidelines on Child Welfare: Friends-International  is an international NGO focusing on empowering marginalized children across the world. Recognizing that growing tourism across Asia can pose risks to vulnerable children, Friends-International aims to ensure that child protection is incorporated into, and carried out in practice, within sustainable tourism strategies. The recent release of the  ‘Global Good Practice Guidelines’  provides all companies within the travel and tourism industry with guidance on preventing the exploitation and abuse of children across all areas of business. This includes the sexual exploitation of children along with the vulnerability of children working and living in tourism hotspots. The ‘Good Practice Guidelines’ encourage businesses to recognize these risks, and then seek to mitigate them and respond in timely ways.

Implementation of the guidelines targets corporate operations and human resource procedures by integrating child welfare into existing products/services and by refining ethical codes and recruitment practices. The guidelines not only provide companies with a framework for refining corporate procedures, but also provide travelers with guidance on how to ensure they do not inadvertently put children at risk or engage in exploitative practices. This includes ‘voluntourism’ (tourism where travelers engage in often unskilled volunteering in the communities or environments they visit), visiting children in residential care or orphanages, homestays, and community-based tourism. These are activities that may be culturally offensive or disruptive to children, and the ‘Global Guidelines’ provide a framework to safeguard child welfare and well-being.

Source: Friends-International, 2018

To complement the ‘Global Guidelines’, Friends-International has developed the ChildSafe Academy, which provides a whole range of activities, trainings and team-building packages revolving around the themes of Child Protection and responsible travel. The activities offered by the program are meant to offer ChildSafe certified alternatives to travelers and hotel guests looking for local tourism entertainment. Some of these activities (escape game, roleplay…) serve also as components for tailor-made  child protection trainings for hotels  designed to offer a more engaging and interactive experience for staff.

ActionAid’s Community Based Tourism program in Myanmar ActionAid is a leading international charity working with women and girls affected by poverty, violence and natural disasters across 45 different countries. The organization seeks to support women with practical, hands-on guidance, in developing solutions that will be most effective for them and their children in the future. ActionAid partnered with Intrepid Travel in Myanmar to launch a Community Based Tourism (CBT) program in Myaing, Myanmar.  Community Based Tourism  (CBT) is a growing sustainable tourism activity and participatory process, wherein a local community has direct ownership over said activities. CBT seeks to empower communities and promote development by supporting local enterprises and embracing local traditions, whilst conserving both natural and cultural resources. The aim of the project is to promote tourism in the region, in a manner that is minimally disruptive to the local community and the environment whilst allowing for increased economic activity that is community driven.

Myanmar has become an increasingly popular tourism destination within South East Asia, with 3.44 million tourists in 2017. However, the economic gains from tourism have been concentrated within certain tourist hotspots. CBT initiatives such as those by ActionAid aim to disperse this concentration, and bring revenue from tourists to rural areas where job opportunities are limited and rates of poverty are high. By engaging in CBT and hospitality, residents of Myaing have gained skills in financial management and English-literacy and started social enterprises. Myaing’s close proximity to the tourist hotspot of Bagan, and the interest on behalf of both the Myanmar government and private tourism operators to expand the market has shown that engaging in a CBT project can be a viable means for fostering local development in the area.

Airbnb’s Local Empowerment Programs Airbnb’s platform utilizes the  sharing economy model , where consumers can access goods and services directly from people providing them. The model itself lowers the starting investment required to engage in income-generating activities. Underserved communities can therefore monetize existing assets under the sharing economy model. Airbnb states that the use of idle residential resources encourages resource efficiency, and promotes cultural exchange, heritage and diversity by allowing people to connect directly and promoting a sense of community.  Airbnb Experiences , launched in November 2016, are activities designed by local experts for a small group of guests which focus on promoting local sustainable living.

The company is also increasingly developing partnerships with organizations across the Asia-Pacific region to promote sustainable tourism to rural areas. One such example is the company’s  ‘Empowering Local Tourism Entrepreneurs’  partnership with the Thailand Ministry of Interior’s Department of Local Administration (DLA). Airbnb trains local provincial officials on hospitality, compliance and hosting standards, and onboarding existing homestay programs onto Airbnb’s platform. Officials will gain digital literacy skills to help locals create and manage listings, and pass on information regarding hospitality best practices. The initial workshop was attended by over 100 Thai officials, and selected local administrative organizations from the tourism sector across 11 provinces. The Director-General of the Department of Local Administration,  Suttipong Juljarern , states that the partnership will provide locals with a source of income to improve their living standards and encourage local development. The aim of the partnership is to build the capacity of officials to act as professional community managers, and distribute tourism income to local communities in rural areas.

Another example of such a partnership, is the partnership with the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA), which represents 2 million Indian women mostly living in rural areas. Through the  program , Airbnb trains SEWA members on aspects such as hospitality, quality standards, responsible hosting and home sharing. The goal is to give the women exposure to Airbnb’s platform, and promote tourism to areas of India that historically have not benefitted from the industry. The initiative has first been implemented in Gujarat, and will be expanded to 13 other Indian states. Airbnb and SEWA aim to bring economic opportunities through sustainable tourism to these rural areas by promoting digital inclusion and empowering women to become micro-entrepreneurs. Another example is the  Airbnb-Guilin Rural Community Tourism project  in Guilin, China. The partnership, established with the Guilin Tourism Development Committee, similarly involves Airbnb training local families on hospitality standards, digital literacy and home sharing. The company is collaborating with local academics in the area to understand the impacts of home sharing, prior to extending the initiative across other rural communities in China. By partnering with local actors and governments, and giving rural communities access to its platform, Airbnb hopes to encourage rural development and economic growth in a sustainable and contextual manner.

We would like to sincerely thank Friends-International, ActionAid and Airbnb for contributing to this article. We look forward to hearing more about these initiatives and related programs from these speakers, at Sustainable Tourism Asia.

This article is part of a series of CSR Asia articles titled, “Sustainable Tourism Asia: Solutions for Tourism and Hospitality”. Other articles from this series include:

• Traveling into tomorrow’s tourism: Insights from three of Asia’s experts , by Tess Zinnes
• Responsible recruitment and tourism , by Ruhi Mukherji
• Regulating paradise: Sustainable tourism policies in Asia , by Tess Zinnes

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At the Top of the Golden Gate Bridge, Governor Newsom Announces Tourism Spending Hit an All-Time High in California

Published: May 05, 2024

California remains the #1 state for tourism

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW : New data released today shows that California continues to have the largest market share of tourism in the nation, with travel spending in the state reaching an all-time record high of $150.4 billion last year.

SAN FRANCISCO – Governor Gavin Newsom and Visit California CEO Caroline Beteta today announced that travel spending in the state reached an all-time high of $150.4 billion last year, surpassing the record $144.9 billion spent in 2019. This comes after the state retained its title as the  world’s 5th largest economy  and had a  population increase , both of which are directly tied to California’s nation-leading tourism and entertainment industries.

VIDEO: Gov. Newsom makes announcement at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge

WHAT GOVERNOR NEWSOM SAID : “From our world-renowned coastline, to the world’s tallest trees, to our iconic cities and theme parks, California is the nation’s coming attraction. Visitors from all over the world are coming here to experience the wonder of the Golden State, boosting our economy and creating good-paying jobs for years to come.”

BY THE NUMBERS : The Economic Impact of Travel in California, prepared by Dean Runyan Associates and released by Visit California, detailed spending that is 3.8% higher than 2019 and 5.6% higher than 2022.  Spending exceeded 2019 levels in a majority of counties.

WHAT VISIT CALIFORNIA CEO BETETA SAID : “California tourism is back where it belongs – setting records and providing for the workers, business owners and all Californians who depend on the travel industry as a cornerstone of our state’s economy. The industry has once again proved its ability to recover from any challenge, whether it be economic or environmental. California continues to be the largest, most diverse and most resilient tourism economy in the United States.”

WHAT THIS MEANS : California has the largest market share of tourism in the nation. The new travel-spending record generated $12.7 billion in state and local tax revenue by visitors in 2023, marking a 3% increase over 2019. Tourism created 64,900 new jobs in 2023, bringing total industry employment to 1,155,000.

California remains the  5th largest economy in the world  for the seventh consecutive year, with a nominal GDP of nearly $3.9 trillion in 2023 and a growth rate of 6.1% since the year prior, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. California’s per capita GDP is the second largest among large economies.

In addition to visiting the state, more people are moving to California. Earlier this week, Governor Newsom  announced  the state’s population is increasing for the first time since the pandemic.

The Golden State, which has the most equitable tax system in the  entire country , is #1 in the nation for new  business starts , #1 for access to venture capital  funding , and the #1 state for tourism  spending ,  manufacturing ,  high-tech , and  agriculture .

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James makes waves in the tourism industry

Training and skills case study

When James Murphy returned to study as a mature age student, he knew he wanted to stay close to the ocean and help the environment.

Now a skipper and the owner of an eco-tourism company in Port Phillip Bay, he gets to do both.

“I started with a Certificate IV in Business (Sales) and then went on to do a Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Business,” explains James.

Although he had jumped into a degree in ecology and sustainability after high school, James never completed the course. TAFE provided him with a practical pathway to resume his education later, laying the foundation for future business ventures.

Today, James heads up the team at Sea All Dolphin Swims, a tourism enterprise offering close-up snorkel experiences with wild fur seals and dolphins.

“I also run a surf school and I’m the founder of Southern Ocean Environmental Link, which is a registered non-profit aimed at improving the health of the ocean through education and conservation,” says James.

It’s through this work that James has begun to pay it forward to others looking for their start in the tourism industry.

“We’ve done a lot of workplace experience for TAFE students out on the boat,” says James.

“We find that people with a hospitality or retail background often have an advantage because they’ve learned how to communicate and talk to people.”

For James, sharing that interaction with others is by far the best part of working in tourism. In an industry that thrives on creating experiences, people skills are definitely important.

To those looking at starting their career in tourism, James says it can be an incredibly fun and rewarding path.

“I think there is going to be demand in the service and tourism industry for years to come,” he says.

“AI is changing the face of the office but at the end of the day, a computer won't be able to hold your hand and empower you to set foot into the ocean for the first time.”

To get started, James recommends looking into qualifications that will help you stand out in a particular interest area.

"There’s a niche group of qualifications applicable to a lot of our jobs,” he explains.

“Look at the position you’re considering, go get something like a diving certificate or coxswain qualification, then work your way up.”

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Explore the training courses available and the skills you need to work in arts, media and recreational services.

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Updated 7 May 2024

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Government of Canada supports Oshawa-based tourism operator

From: Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario

News release

Canadian tourism organizations and attractions play a crucial role in showcasing our country’s unique history, geography, culture and experiences. By attracting domestic and international travelers, these destinations also contribute to good local jobs and economic growth in communities.

FedDev Ontario invests $125,000 in Treetop Eco-Adventure Park to develop new outdoor trampoline park

May 8, 2024 – Oshawa, Ontario

Canadian tourism organizations and attractions play a crucial role in showcasing our country’s unique history, geography, culture and experiences. By attracting domestic and international travelers, these destinations also contribute to good local jobs and economic growth in communities. 

Today, the Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario ( FedDev Ontario ), announced an investment of $125,000 for Treetop Eco-Adventure Park to expand operations at its Oshawa location.

With support from this investment through the Tourism Growth Program , Treetop Eco-Adventure Park, a high ropes and zipline ecological adventure park, will add a new outdoor trampoline attraction. This addition is expected to increase visitors to the area, resulting in spillover benefits for the local economy.

The Government of Canada is committed to supporting tourism businesses and organizations that attract visitors to the region while contributing to the local economy and positioning Canada as an all-season destination of choice.

“Tourism is an economic cornerstone in communities across southern Ontario, stimulating job creation and contributing significantly to the region's overall prosperity. The Government of Canada knows the value in supporting tourism businesses and organizations, like Treetop Eco-Adventure Park, who showcase the unique experiences and attractions southern Ontario has to offer.” - The Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario

“Southern Ontario’s tourism industry is an incredibly important economic driver and provides jobs for Canadians from all walks of life. Through the Tourism Growth Program, the Government of Canada is supporting local organizations like Treetop Eco-Adventure Park. As we continue to invest in the industry, we’ll help bring more domestic and international visitors to the region to discover all that it has to offer.” - The Honourable Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Minister of Tourism 

“Treetop Eco-Adventure Park is thrilled to rekindle its successful partnership with FedDev Ontario for our latest venture, IBounce—an interactive outdoor trampoline net park. With four dynamic game areas and five trampoline nets, we aim to captivate even more outdoor enthusiasts, inviting them to leap into boundless excitement amidst the scenic beauty of the Oak Ridges Moraine. Each bounce fosters a deeper connection with nature, reinforcing our commitment as stewards of Durham Region's second-largest forest and our passion for sharing its wonders in innovative and enjoyable ways.” - Karen Richards, Owner, Treetop Eco-Adventure Park

Quick facts

Treetop Eco-Adventure Park hosts up to 12,000 visitors every year and features 8 courses that entertain guests through Tarzan ropes, zip lines and a variety of different mid-air games for ages 3 and up.

Delivered by Canada’s regional development agencies, the Tourism Growth Program provides $108 million, over three years, directly to businesses and organizations to help diversify regional economies by investing in tourism products and experiences that will encourage visitation to and within Canada. In southern Ontario, FedDev Ontario is delivering over $30 million through the program.

Since 2015, the Government of Canada, through FedDev Ontario, has invested over $45 million in more than 85 projects with businesses and organizations in Durham region, estimated to create over 220 jobs and maintain over 750 jobs. 

Since 2015, the Government of Canada, through FedDev Ontario, has invested over $415 million in more than 1,440 tourism-related businesses and organizations, estimated to create over 4,700 jobs and maintain over 20,000 jobs.

Associated links

• Treetop Eco-Adventure Park
• FedDev Ontario
• Tourism Growth Program in southern Ontario

Edward Hutchinson Press Secretary Office of the Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario [email protected]

Media Relations FedDev Ontario [email protected]

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Increase of 29% in Saudi Arabia's domestic tourism in Q1 2024 continues consistent trend

ALBAWABA - An industry study based on data from Almosafer's customer travel sites showed that local tourism in Saudi Arabia grew steadily in the first four months of 2024, Arab News reports, with 53 percent of all bookings being for trips to places inside the kingdom.

The continued interest in domestic tourism shows how well efforts by the government and the private sector to promote local tourism have been working, leading to a 29% rise in the total number of domestic bookings made through all Almosafer platforms.

Makkah, Riyadh, Jeddah, Alkhobar, and Abha topped the charts for the most popular places to visit within Saudi Arabia, followed by AlUla, Tabuk, and Hail as favoured places by travellers.

As a result of additional flight routes, more seats, and additional airports being opened in the Kingdom, economical airlines have been able to offer more budget-friendly trip choices, leading to a 27 percent increase in flight booking compared to the same period last year, while hotel reservations soared 40 percent.

Domestic and foreign tourists spent more than SR250 billion ($66.7 billion) on tourism in 2023, making it an important part of the national income, as the Saudi kingdom pushes for alternative income sources away from oil, with the country welcoming 27.4 million foreign tourists and 79.3 million local ones in 2023.

The study additionally revealed that Saudi Arabia had a tremendous return rate for tourism after COVID, with 156 percent more foreign tourists coming to the country in 2023 compared to 2019.