An early assessment of COVID-19’s impact on tourism in U.S. counties

Abstract

We use county-level data to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the tourism and hospitality sector, which was by far the most impacted of all sectors, focusing on employment and wage changes. Results support our hypothesis that rural counties experienced fewer negative impacts or even benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of job growth . We present maps showing the pandemic’s effects on leisure and hospitality (L&H) employment across the nation, identifying the communities both hardest hit and least impacted. A linear regression model is developed to explore independent factors that influenced the pandemic’s local impact. Results are robust across different measures of the key variable (rurality), including rural-urban continuum codes, distance from metropolitan areas, and population density. We also consider the impacts of social capital, income, and local economic diversification, among other factors. Our results suggest that remote, less-populated counties were more likely to experience stable employment in the L&H sector relative to pre-pandemic levels, and in some cases even experienced employment growth. JEL Classification: J2, J3, R1

The search for training and skill improvement of seasonal workers in tourism

“…In this regard, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the tourism industry has been particularly harsh (Sigala, 2020; Perles-Ribes et al ., 2023), with many workers in the undeclared economy unable to access the financial supports provided by the governments to tourism (Williams, 2021). The consequent massive outflow of workers from the tourism sector during the COVID-19 standstill period (Han et al ., 2022), along with the “Great Resignation” phenomenon, a longer-term trend that particularly affected restaurants, bars and hotels (Ravenelle and Kowalski, 2023), did not only produce bottlenecks and unmatched vacancies, but it also caused a sudden loss of human capital, whose disruptive effects has subsequently emerged at the time of the recovery (Colmekcioglu et al ., 2022). Overall, this pattern emphasized that industry human capital is a crucial factor for the post-pandemic recovery of the tourism sector, and calls for new training and motivational requirements for those seasonal workers who will enter the tourism labour market in the next future.…”

Industry-specific upskilling of seasonal tourism workers: Does occupational gender inequality matter?

“…Tourism and hospitality industries, together with performing arts, entertainment, and events, have suffered the worst impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with long-lasting shutdowns and massive job losses (e.g., Han et al, 2022). Moreover, because of lockdown restrictions, businesses of these sectors adjusted the way in which they provide products and services, along with substantial changes to employees' roles and duties (O 'Dwyer, 2021).…”

Development of Rural Cultural Tourism Industry under the Digitalization of National Culture: A Case Study of the Yellow River Basin in Huyi District, Xi'an City

“…

ABSTRACT：The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made important arrangements for accelerating the construction of digital China and implementing the national cultural digitalization strategy, clearly proposing to "accelerate the development of the digital economy and promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy" [7] Rural tourism is the key to promoting the breakthrough and development of the private economy and the county economy, as well as the key to promoting the adjustment, transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure. In addition, the improvement of the governance of villages near the Yellow River Basin has carried out a lot of theoretical research on the rural revitalization of the Yellow River Basin from different perspectives such as industrial prosperity, cultural inheritance, ecological restoration, and rural governance, which has laid a good theoretical support for the research and implementation of this project.However, compared with the eastern region, there are still a series of problems in the development process of rural cultural tourism in the western region, and some problems have not yet been solved.

…”