Tourism and Hospitality industry resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from England

Abstract

The tourism and hospitality industries have been particularly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with widespread closures and later reopening times than other areas of economic activity. However, little is known about the resilience of these industries in light of the current pandemic, within the context of English towns. This paper surveys businesses dependent on tourism located in English towns, to explore perceptions of resilience in this crisis context. We consider the nuances involved in resilience to disturbances such as Covid-19, revealing the temporal dimensions of resilience. Moreover, we identify influences informing differing resilience levels within and between industries. The paper also contributes a novel Business Resilience Composite Score, which enables academics, practitioners and policy-makers to draw comparisons between tourism and hospitality industry resilience and other economic activity in urban locations.

Place Branding—The Challenges of Getting It Right: Coping with Success and Rebuilding from Crises

“…Not all destinations will recover at the same rate. City tourism has been particularly adversely affected by this pandemic, as urban centers were forced into lockdown [74]. Tourism activities that take place outdoors in the natural environment may also be evaluated more positively by travelers wishing to avoid close personal contact with others [71].…”

“…Domestic "staycations" may be more sustainable and resilient than international travel [75] and may help tourists overcome potential tourophobia that could accompany international travel. Indeed, in a post-pandemic world, the tourism agenda may well be more democratized across the world, reducing inequalities between indigenous host communities and global tourism service providers [76], and the tourism landscape may well become more inclusive, offering more opportunities for social justice, and less exploitation [4,74].…”

“…While the use of such technology may allow tourism to restart, there are two subsectors of the industry, involving "events and conference tourism dependent on mass gatherings [that] may take a long time to recover" [74]. It is yet to be seen if business tourism will ever fully recover, as almost all meetings, conferences, incentives, and events (MICE) have taken place virtually over the past year.…”

Family support and posttraumatic growth among tourism workers during the COVID-19 shutdown: The role of positive stress mindset

“…One of the hardest-hit industries by the COVID-19 outbreak is tourism ( Baum & Nguyen, 2020 ; Ntounis et al, 2021 ) as it is an industry that operates in peacetime and as such is more vulnerable to crises and disasters ( Liu & Pratt, 2017 ; Okumus & Karamustafa, 2005 ). Border closures and nationwide lockdowns have led to the suspension of domestic and international flights and the closure of tourist destinations and hotels ( Minh Khoi, 2020 ; Nguyen, 2020 ).…”

High regional economic activity repels domestic tourism during summer of pandemic

“…Other analyses rely on data from official travel and tourism surveys (Boto-García & Leoni, 2021). These latter surveys also encompass representatives of tourist establishments (Ntounis et al, 2021;Silva, 2021). Silva (2021), for instance, demonstrates that a minority of establishments in Portugal reports positive impacts on their business due to increased domestic demand.…”