Tourism Through Troubled Times

An increasing number of studies claim on the decline of hospitality in the West. These works focus on the lack of tolerance or expressions against foreigners as the clear sign that something is changing. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic mainly marked a type of intolerance with the foreign tourists. This book chapter brings reflection on the plot of HBO Saga Westworld to understand the ways forms of hospitality in a post-modern world.

The present book chapter is based on the technique of content analysis or film ethnography which dissects elements of films and movies. In so doing, film ethnography occupies a central position in the constellations of qualitative methods.

The present piece is a critique on what specialists dubbed as robot tourism. Westworld shows not only the cautions policymakers should have on robot tourism but also how the depersonalisation process works. Basically, Westworld speaks us of a dystopian amusing park where rich guests travel to torture and victimise humanoids (hosts) who are unable to retaliate. Westworld brings reflection on the decline or the end of hospitality, at least as we know it.

Just after 9/11 some critical voices alerted Western hospitality was in decline. This chapter goes on in the same direction. Westworld brings the problems of free choice, the liberty as well as hospitality into the foreground.

Kenyan Small and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) have been highly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the tourism workforce had to face lockdowns and travel restrictions. In order to maintain business and operational continuity, the tourism workforce had to leverage on internet technologies and digitalisation as a means of enabling business continuity and providing value addition in their supply chains. This study sought to investigate on the extent to which digital skills aid in the tourism recovery process as well as improve the employees' well-being amid the COVID-19 pandemic among SMTEs in Nairobi City County.

The study took a qualitative approach based on constructivist grounded methodological approaches that emphasised specifically on the discovery of emerging trends and patterns in behaviour as well as development of new theory. The aim was to understand the tourism workforce recovery process using digital skills. The process involved data gathering from interview participants, qualitative emic and etic coding, analytical memo writing, theoretical sampling and reconstructing theory.

The findings of the study showed that due to losses attributed to the lockdowns and travel restrictions, prospective digital business models have been formulated for tourism stakeholders during the lockdown period. The changing technological landscape globally showed that digital skills will continue to be in great demand to meet the needs of the marketplace. Further, the use of social digital tools to build a mental health response to COVID-19 was instrumental to the recovery process. Technological resilience is a key factor that will play a role in reviving the sector.

A structured vision, roadmap and tourism strategy for mainstreaming digital skills and developing technological resilience within the tourism and hospitality sector is important towards coping and adaptive strategies for the SMTEs in the Kenyan context.

This study examines how digital skills are vital for tourism recovery especially for the SMTEs within the developing countries context.

The purpose of this chapter is to advance existing literature on crisis management by critically analysing the impact of crisis on tourism performance within a developing world context, with a specific focus on South Africa as a case study area. Crime, xenophobic attacks and the Day Zero water crisis form the basis for discussion as significant crisis affecting the country's tourism industry.

Utilising qualitative content analysis as a methodological approach, the study analysis strategic policy documents, newspaper reports, press conferences, and campaigns to discover policies, strategies and plans that have been applied to alleviate the impacts of catastrophic events on tourism performance.

The interpretation of literature reveals that factors affecting the South Africa tourism industry stem from mainly human-caused disasters, this being crime and violence, and inadequate water management strategies.

Results discussed in this study were framed through a systemic review of existing literature To gain an in-depth understanding of crisis-related matters in the Global South, future research can apply empirical data-gathering procedures.

The study proposes that proactive crisis management planning and inclusion of non-tourism stakeholders in crisis management planning is essential to combat crisis' impact on tourism performance.

In the Global South, studies that interrogate the effects of crises on tourism performance generally focus on a single case of a disaster or crisis, therefore lacks a study that comprehensively discusses events that deter tourism performance. Thus, this study bridges the existing literature gap by focussing on South Africa as a case study area.

The purpose of this chapter is an exploration of the potential benefits derived from a country destination being geographically co-located to tourist destinations that have experienced considerable tourism growth. Those high-performing tourism destinations are often in close proximity to main tourist-generating markets adjacent to the Caribbean region.

An exploratory descriptive research study that utilised secondary data sources to explore the potential benefits of Haiti being co-located in the Greater Caribbean Antilles and The Bahamas.

Given Haiti's present socio-economic and political crises, tourism growth challenges are evident. Nonetheless, based on Haiti's interactions with countries in the Greater Antilles, which obtained visitor arrivals of over one (1) million, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico, and The Bahamas that is further north of the zone, opportunities and constraints for Haiti's tourism growth are identified. Opportunities exist for human resource sharing, transport integration, cultural exchanges, education and knowledge exchanges, investment and diplomatic relations to support tourism development in Haiti.

Given consideration to approaches utilised to develop tourism in the Caribbean basin, the argument is that tourism development can occur by being geographically co-located, and networking with other tourism destinations as this co-location may propel tourism growth in a country destination.

The present book chapter deals with the problem of dark tourism as well as the resilience forms of consumption in post-disaster context.

The turn of the century characterised a radical change in the forms of tourism consumption. New forms of tourism as dark or thana tourism have captivated the attention of scholars and journalists. This book chapter centres efforts in dillucidating what are the key factors that determine the formation of a dark site. The text is inspired in my own ethnographies in Cromañon, Argentina and the Ground Zero, US.

As Phillip Stone puts it, not all dark shrines or sites welcome tourists. While some sites are reluctant to mass tourism, others are mainly organised around the figure of the tourist. La Republica de Cromañón is a night club where in a fire died 194 young. The site is today refurbished as a sanctuary to remind the victims. At a closer look, there is a tension between stakeholders at the time of promoting dark tourism in Cromañón. In the opposite the ground zero is fully designed to be visited by thousands tourists.

The originality of this research consists in the contraposition of two study cases which answer the question to what extent dark tourism is desired by locals. The findings lay the foundations towards the specialised literature in dark tourism studies. We discuss critically the nature of thanatopsis.

The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate and discuss the factors that underpin tourists' perceptions of anti-COVID-19 practices in tourist accommodations and destinations, as well as in tourists' experience, satisfaction and behaviour, in order to make recommendations for managers at hotels and tourist destinations.

A survey at tourist accommodations in the Canary Islands was conducted to collect data, and 431 questionnaires were part of the final analysis. The data were analysed with the SPSS27 statistical processing software. Various multivariate techniques such as correlation analysis and factor analysis were used to analyse the data.

The results reveal that anti-COVID-19 practices at the accommodation are the most important for tourists to feel safe in their visit to the destination. The most important factors in the tourists' experience during the pandemic are those related to communication and behaviour. Satisfaction after COVID-19 is perceived higher if places or items for cleaning and disinfestation are provided to tourists and rooms are naturally ventilated, while intentions to visit after COVID-19 are highest to visit local destinations.

The results of the research will support scholars and practitioners to recognise the importance of factors that influence anti-COVID-19 practices, tourists' experience, satisfaction and behaviour during the pandemic. In addition, the research offers policy recommendations for maximum benefits for the tourism industry in the Canary Islands and others tourist destinations.

The chapter was an original primary and exploratory study that surveyed tourists to determine their perceptions of anti-COVID-19 practices, experience, satisfaction and behaviour during the pandemic. The results reveal the most important factors in the construction of the analysed variables, and may be used as a starting point for further hospitality marketing research.

COVID-19 impacted the tourism sector, and its ripple effect is equally evident in tourism academia at all levels. Since innovation in tourism pedagogy is considered an epicentre of quality education, this study proposes an integrated model to identify the degree of pedagogical innovation adapted by tourism educators. The model is an amalgamation of innovation indicators in teaching practices developed by Sigala (2021), a futurist model developed by Wassler and Fan (2021) and a model of innovation developed by Brooker and Joppe (2014).

The study is exploratory, and an online qualitative survey was used to collect data. Data were analysed using the Nvivo 12 software and three themes were drawn: Painters, Artists and Artisans.

The study found that the majority of the tourism educators are painters as they adopted minor changes in their pedagogy. They follow the conventional methods of teaching by incorporating ICT into their pedagogy. Whereas a smaller group of tourism educators introduced innovative tools to encourage and equip students with professional skills (artists/artisans).

The study suggests practical implications for tourism educators to embrace and innovate their pedagogy to become ‘artists/artisans’. The support of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and industry professionals are equally crucial for bringing innovation in tourism pedagogy and academia, in general, artisans.

Given that tourism education has scantly been discussed following the breakout of COVID-19 (Sigala, 2020), the study addresses that resurrection of tourism pedagogy through an integrated model.

The leisure industry is colossally impacted by varied types of crisis. Assessing the volatility; an attempt is made towards disaster planning and a response system. This chapter indicates an all-inclusive integrated approach to deal with disasters and narrates conceptual and latest factual findings in the space of disaster management. An efficient and self-equipped attraction demands a competent and efficient disaster management system in place.

This chapter devises measures to deal with the capacity of a destination during pandemic and proposes recovering strategies for the leisure business. Destination governance and disaster management techniques are well explored in the proposed chapter.

An imperative study of this nature will determine the role of cultural perceptions of varied risk and threats in a pandemic scenario. Innovative practices of disaster governance and Post-disaster recovery strategies are crucial mechanisms for the sustenance of tourism and hospitality sector.

The conceptual ideas and outcomes obtained in this chapter helps policy makers not only to find new strategies to placate the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the organic image of tourist destinations but also assists in accelerating the recovery timeframe just after the pandemic.

The purpose of this chapter is to critically evaluate the development of technological infrastructure and the propensity of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) destinations to adopt digitalisation in their hotel sectors. This paper focuses on technological readiness, the types of digitalisation and its influence on the hotel sector in a post-pandemic environment.

The chapter is a critical and conceptual overview of digitalisation in the Latin America and the Caribbean hotel sectors, the contribution of the hotel sector to tourism economies, and digitalisation in LAC post COVID-19. A comprehensive examination of the academic literature is combined with the Network Readiness Index (NRI) and Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) on several LAC countries focusing on different scopes including ICT readiness, ICT environment and business usage from 2010 to 2020. The paper uses empirical data collected from NRI and TTCI on several LAC countries examining changes in development of information and communications technology (ICT) by conducting a longitudinal analysis over a ten-year period.

The chapter argues that digitalisation in the hotel sector has been given a lot of attention regarding the adoption of digitalisation during the pandemic by a continuation of activities involving check-in and check-out, providing safety for guests and staff and the recovery of the hotel sector by both hoteliers and academics. Yet, LAC have been slow when it comes to the development of ICT. This is shown on the NRI and the TTCI by their position on ICT infrastructure, ICT environment and business usage. Nevertheless, while their positions on the indexes are less than favourable, their scores are improving, but at a very slow rate.

Limited academic literature is available on digitalisation in LAC countries. There is no consistent data on the NRI and TTCI year to year for some of the countries examined in this study.

This study provides a comprehensive review of technological infrastructure development of countries of Latin America and Caribbean countries with an emphasis on digitalisation in a hospitality context. The chapter is a critical examination of digitalisation in the hotel sector in a post-pandemic environment.

This chapter evaluates the impacts of and response measures to COVID-19 pandemic on the practice of tourism in the wildlife conservancy model in Kenya thus proposing response interventions to possible tourism crises in the future.

The study uses the qualitative exploratory experience design and collects data from purposely selected conservancies' leaders and other documented materials from two main wildlife conservancies association in Kenya.

The chapter presents findings on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on wildlife conservancy-based tourism, how conservancies responded to the pandemic and conservancy leadership perspectives on how to model future tourism and related activities in the conservancies based on the lessons they have learnt from the COVID-19 experience.

With the wildlife conservancy-based tourism model in Kenya being a relatively new phenomenon, the study provides important lessons for comparison with other such initiatives in other places in the event of tourism crises in the future.

This chapter argues that better preparedness to crises and uncertainties by various tourism types and models can help mitigate against adverse effects of similar uncertainties in the future. Consequently, the findings offer a glimpse of proposals and solutions to the wildlife conservancy-based tourism models that continue to be established in Kenya and in the region.

This article discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the demand and preferences of tourists in Russia. Tourists are the important part of the tourism industry, the most affected by COVID-19, because they are not only limited in moving and free choice of vacation destinations but also experience the economic consequences of the pandemic. However, the industry has already adapted to the current realities of the pandemic period, and tourists largely accept closed borders, mandatory vaccination requirements and PCR tests as an integral part of a modern tourist trip.

In Russia, the tourism industry has received a significant development boost despite the expected crisis consequences. The efforts of the authorities to stimulate domestic tourism and the lack of alternatives for vacations contributed to the fact that in 2020–2021 the domestic tourist flow increased by several times.

Article is aimed at studying the changes in tourist motivation and preferences of Russian tourists made by ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, will Russians still want to travel across their country after the pandemic is over? And what is currently influencing their choice of vacation forms and destinations? The survey revealed changes in the tourists' choice of vacation destinations, preferences in forms of activity and duration of travel, decrease of interest in package tours and rise of individual trips as well as the stable degree of satisfaction with vacations in Russia.

To answer this question, we examined the results of public opinion survey, carried out by All-Russian Centre for the Public Opinion Study and Association of Russian Tour operators. To confirm these results, we conducted own tourist opinion survey and analysed reviews on popular travel platforms in Russia. Today the tourism industry is in uncertainty and it is impossible to predict its development and tourist motivation in long-term perspective. This makes the study promising for continuation in the long term.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge negative impact on the world’s hotel industry from the beginning of 2020. As a result of the pandemic, the majority of hotels around the world have decided to close temporarily. It examines the challenges faced by hotel managers and the strategies used to survive.

This research can motivate hotel companies around the world to better understand pandemic situations and develop effective anti-pandemic policies. Based on online in-depth interviews with 25 hotel managers, the findings shed light on the various challenges to hotels.

Findings have shown that the hotel industry has been able to adapt their business for the short term with post-COVID-19 strategies still having limitations. To survive the duration of the pandemic hotels have adopted strategies: reducing employees, promotions and discounts and changing the market segment, as well as levels of maintenance of hygiene and cleanliness. The hotel industry can implement opportunities toward change through government support, crisis management, cooperation with travel agencies and technology.

The current research is to determine the impact of COVID-19 and the adaptive strategies on the hotel sector in the Siem Reap province by the following objectives: (1) To analyse the impacts of COVID-19 in the hotel sector, (2) To identify adaptive strategies in dealing with COVID-19 in the hotel sector and (3) To explore post-COVID-19 strategies of the hotel sector after the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative method was employed in the research online and in-depth interviews were conducted with the owner and general manager.

The study suggests that hotels focus more on survival strategies for the short term, so the topic for future research could be to investigate details of strategies after the COVID-19 pandemic in order to research what the hotels' strategic solutions will be and how they will manage the operation after the COVID-19 pandemic for long-term strategies.

Crisis management has developed as an established field of scholarly research in tourism over the last three decades. More recently, the concept of resilience has emerged within this body of literature as a longer-term planning process. However, important knowledge gaps remain, especially with regards to the strategic responses of small tourism businesses in destinations prone to repeated crises.

This chapter reviews the literature related to crisis management and resilience in tourism.

Key knowledge gaps are outlined and discussed in the context of tourism research related to crisis management and resilience, with a specific emphasis on research related to small tourism businesses.

Although crisis management and resilience are fields of research that continue to generate a considerable amount of scholarly enquiry in tourism, particularly with studies related to the impacts of terrorism on tourism destinations and, more recently, the short- and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, there is very little research related to the role of small tourism businesses in this context, in spite of their key role in the tourism system of destinations around the world.