Edinburgh Tourism Action Group focused initially on creating an inventory of businesses and pulling together the right information, guidance, and a programme of events. Please submit the following details to download the report. Policy makers will need to learn from the crisis to build a stronger, more resilient tourism economy for the future. Many micro-businesses died on impact and many others downsized, or mothballed, their operations for at least a season and entire communities were closed to visitors. As part of the project, the Travel Foundation created and tested a Recovery Plan Assessment Frameworkwhich has since been developed into a handbook and a workshop programme to help even more destinations in their recovery planning, and has so far been delivered by the charity for DMOs in Mexico and the Caribbean, with the Pacific Islands and Greece soon to come. This may lead to a decline in demand and tourism consumption that continues well long after the initial shock. This requires global co-operation and evidence-based solutions so travel restrictions can be safely lifted. It also brought the destinations together to share ideas, issues and concerns and benefit from collective support. Growth has rebounded in many parts of the economy, but tourism and other sectors have been slower to bounce back, and this is impacting recovery in many countries9. Sector-specific supports are needed to address the particular needs of tourism workers, businesses and destinations, and support wider economic recovery. National level estimates similarly reflect the scale of the impact on tourism, together with the challenges in making predictions in a fast moving and uncertain situation. Strengthened multi-lateral co-operation and robust support is essential to reactivate tourism. Colorado Tourism Office provided a technical assistance programme for its small associations, and grants to support product development innovation, accelerating an existing focus on building the capacity of businesses. Policy makers should leverage the opportunity to reboot the tourism economy on a stronger, fairer and more sustainable footing. Overall spend is generally lower and domestic visitors have a shorter stay on average. The COVID-19 crisis has hit the tourism economy hard, with unprecedented effects on jobs and businesses. Also, not all destinations or businesses have benefited, due to ongoing restrictions on movement within countries and altered demand patterns and behaviours. Key policy priorities include: Supporting tourism businesses to adapt and survive, Promoting domestic tourism and supporting safe return of international tourism, Providing clear information to travellers and businesses, and limiting uncertainty (to the extent possible), Evolving response measures to maintain capacity in the sector and address gaps in supports, Strengthening co-operation within and between countries, Building more resilient, sustainable tourism. A hyper-domestic resident first approach can build further resilience into the visitor economy and ensure that visitors are supporting businesses that are also valued by the community. The Travel Foundation provided technical support and a critical friend role for these DMOs to put in place plans for longer term success. To reset your password please enter the email address associated with your account: plans to move its Red Light District out of the city centre, where voters chose to ban big and dirty cruise ships. Perhaps it is time to trial electric scooter hire, create new cycle paths, or permanently reclaim streets which were previously congested with traffic, and repurpose them for people and outdoor entertainment. Government at all levels, and the private sector, need to be better prepared and have the capacity to react and adapt quickly. The road ahead is brighter as progress on vaccines has lifted hopes, but challenges remains and recovery will be uneven across countries, and across sectors. waiters, air stewards, hotel receptionists). Available evidence highlights the precipitous drop in international travel flows and tourism spending, as well as the contraction of domestic tourism activities. Providing policy clarity and taking steps to limit uncertainty (to the extent possible) will be crucial to support tourism recovery. These include the evolution of the pandemic, availability of a vaccine (or alternative control measures), and the lifting of travel restrictions, as well as the survival and readiness of businesses throughout the tourism ecosystem to meeting demand, impacts on consumer confidence and travel behaviour, and developments in the wider economy. Crisis management will be a particular area of focus. DMOs have also supported businesses towards digitalisation for instance to update their changing-status details, continue to have a presence with their customers, and potentially access new markets or diversify outside of the visitor economy. OECD expects international tourism to fall by around 80% in 2020. There is an urgent need to diversify and strengthen the resilience of the tourism economy, to better prepare for future shocks, to address long standing structural weaknesses, and encourage the digital, low carbon transformations that will be essential to shift to stronger, fairer and more sustainable models of tourism development. Germany: The German Federal Competence Centre for Tourisms latest Recovery-Check forecasts from July 2020 identify three possible scenarios for domestic and international tourism recovery. With no international visitors, marketing has in some cases taken a back seat, and instead DMOs have been engaging more than ever with local businesses and a broader set of stakeholders. Indigenous Tourism Ontario provided business support brokers to understand the needs of its community enterprises and develop a targeted package of information, training and support. Whether this new visitor economy will be better more resilient, more equitable and creating more value for communities - will depend on how we recover. This may include the emergence of new niches and market segments, and a greater focus on safety protocols and contactless tourism experiences. They launched the Paradise at Home campaign to encourage exploration between the islands of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. These structured peer-to-peer discussions were particularly beneficial given that destinations worldwide are currently grappling with a common set of new and fast-paced issues. Countries need to develop collaborative systems across borders to safety resume travel, restore traveller and business confidence, stimulate demand and accelerate tourism recovery. DMOs have had to adapt quickly to new roles and responsibilities. More efficient international co-ordination systems are also needed to respond to future shocks. The increased demand for outdoor space, self-drive and outdoor activities is a trend that is set to continue, and investment to protect natural and cultural assets and improve user experiences will have benefits for both residents and visitors alike. The unprecedented shock to the tourism economy is being compounded by the evolving sanitary situation. Under the central scenario, inbound tourism arrivals are forecast to decline by 73%, with a corresponding decline in spending of 79% (last updated early October 2020). The indirect impacts of tourism are also significant, exacerbating the size of the shock on national and local economies. Domestic tourism has restarted in many countries, but can only partially compensate for the loss of inbound tourism. While it is still too early to say with any certainty what these will be, a number of initial lessons are outlined: Crisis has been a call to action to governments, at all levels, to respond in a co-ordinated way, and has highlighted the importance of integrated tourism policy approaches to support recovery. Although all destinationswill have their unique contexts and issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected places in markedly different ways (while many popular attractions were shuttered, elsewhere places suffered from domestic-driven overtourism), there are also many commonalities. The immediate concern is, of course, to keep as many businesses afloat as possible and to halt the exodus of talent. Tourism continues to be one of the sectors hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the outlook remains highly uncertain. Tourism policy will need to be more reactive and in the long term it will move to more flexible systems, able to adapt faster to changes of policy focus. On March 31st, well be joined by leading experts from The Travel Foundation and members of the Roots to Recovery initiative to dive deeper into the learnings of the project, and to create an ongoing discussion that will allowdestinationsto collaborate on mutual challenges theyre facing in tourism recovery. Measures should be increasingly conditioned on broader environmental, economic and social objectives.15. City Nation Place provides information and inspiration to place branding teams around the world whether you are working to promote the reputation of your city, region or nation, to promote tourism, attract talent or investment, or increase economic competitiveness. These solutions also need to be feasible to implement, with sufficient capacity available to ensure these systems are can function reliably. The global scale and extended duration of the crisis, continued uncertainty, and the interlinked economic and health nature of this crisis makes it unlike any previous shock to the tourism system. The Roots to Recovery initiative brought together four very different DMOs: Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, Indigenous Tourism Ontario, Grenada Tourism Authority and Colorado Tourism Office. Changes in visitor flows, for instance, to enable social distancing in town centres, mean that normal transport and mobility has been disrupted, and temporary measures (such as barriers and signs) may impact on aesthetics and experiences. Domestic tourism is providing a much needed boost to help sustain many tourism destinations and businesses, and will continue to be a key driver of recovery in the short to medium term. Quantifying the current and future impacts of the crisis on the tourism sector is challenging, with the crisis exposing shortcomings in tourism statistical information systems, including a lack of robust, comparable and timely data to inform policy and business decisions. OECD (2019), "Providing new OECD evidence on tourism trade in value added",OECD Tourism Papers, No. The OECD estimates that more than a third of the tourism value added generated in the domestic economy comes from indirect impacts, reflecting the breadth and depth to linkages between tourism and other sectors (e.g. Tourism is highly labour intensive and provides a high volume of jobs for low skilled workers, together with higher skilled jobs. The outlook for tourism is extraordinarily uncertain, and recovery will depend on the interlinked consequences of the economic and health crisis on demand and supply side factors. The halt in tourism is having a knock-on impact on the wider economy, given the interlinked nature of the sector. Public-private tourism taskforces have been set up in many countries, and there is a new willingness to collaborate across sectors which can be continued through to the recovery phase. Colorado has responded to overtourism, which affected some of its national parks, urban trails and other outdoor attractions, with communication to manage this from a health and safety perspective, and to engage residents. During a phased reopening, Grenada Tourism Authority launched the Pure Grenada, Just for you campaign focused on niche offerings and encouraging connections to other sectors such as agriculture, gastronomy and nature. People are likely to prefer private solutions when travelling, avoiding big gatherings, and prioritising private means of transport, which may have an adverse impact on the environment. The opportunity is therefore to develop marketing plans and niche products that build out from the local focus, using local people and insights to reinforce a sense of place that will appeal to a wider and international audience. They are looking at the full tourism ecosystem and identifying the ideal visitor profiles to bring back the health of the visitor economy and provide positive impacts on communities. Response, Recovery and Resilience to the COVID-19 Crisis. Structural change in tourism supply is expected across the ecosystem. The pandemic has once again exposed structural shortcomings in the tourism system and the vulnerability to external shocks. Click to create account. This has consequences beyond the tourism economy, with the many other sectors that support, and are supported by, tourism also significantly impacted. This will further damage business and traveller confidence, and business survival prospects. Attempts to forecast the impact of the pandemic on the tourism economy have repeatedly been overtaken by the rapidly evolving sanitary situation, and changes to containment measures. Those parts of the tourism ecosystem that are not yet open for business and where demand is likely to be depressed or constrained for some time will require particular attention, as will destinations and small businesses that have been most severely hit and are most vulnerable. The focus now must be on providing existing operators and service providers (especially SMEs) with a targeted programme of practical support to diversify their products and sell to new markets, and to create a nurturing environment for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Tourism has benefited significantly from general economic stimulus measures. The sector also risks being among one of the last to recover, with the ongoing travel restrictions and the global recession. Domestic and European demand is expected recover steadily, but demand from overseas markets is not expected to recover until 2023. Beyond the tourism economy, the pandemic has triggered a global economic crisis, and this in turn has consequences for tourism recovery. Co-ordinated action across governments at all levels and the private sector is essential. So DMO plans, interventions, grants and investments can be guided by a return on investment for the community perhaps using a sustainability or wellbeing index as well as the RoI for the local economy. This could mean a shortfall in services for visitors, and a source of tension between residents and visitors for restricted-capacity activities. And whilst we can expect an eventual return to 2019 visitors levels (by 2023 or 2024 at the earliest, according to UNWTO and PATA), in many other ways the tourismof 2019 will never return. 1 December 2020. Domestic tourism is expected to benefit, as people prefer to stay local and visit destinations within their own country. Information exchange is critical during a crisis, and systems set up during lockdown to achieve a real-time understanding of business inventory (capacity, vulnerability and viability) will be an important management tool as tourism and hospitality restarts and grows. Find out more about theSustainability Working Group here, or email katie@citynationplace.com to find out how you can get involved. It is too early to say what the long term implications of the crisis will be for tourism, but a return to business as usual is highly unlikely. Spain and the United Kingdom, for example, are forecasting a decrease in domestic tourism by 45-50% in 2020. There has been some pick up in domestic tourism activities since the middle of the year, due in part to displacement effects of international travel restrictions. The crisis, and the recovery plans that are being put in place, are a once in a lifetime opportunity to move towards more sustainable and resilient models of tourism development. For instance, domestic visitors are more likely to explore away from the honeypot attractions, allowing you to market new places and experiences. However, a return to business as usual is unlikely. Continued government support should already start to build toward more sustainable and resilient tourism economy. Incorporating a domestic element to your longer-term strategies will ensure greater resilience to future shocks, and different spend patterns will help spread economicbenefits more widely and reduce seasonality. Indigenous Tourism Ontario kept in close communications with its operators to understand their situations and challenges. Beyond the tourism economy, the pandemic has triggered a global economic crisis, and this in turn has consequences for tourism recovery. However, it is one of the most heavily impacted sectors, and will have an impact on wider macroeconomic recovery in many countries. The scale of job losses is not yet apparent, as government supports have protected workers from the full impact of the pandemic. Delivering well-targeted and accessible supports as quickly and efficiently as possible to vulnerable tourism businesses, workers and tourists has and continues to be crucial. Edinburgh has an opportunity to accelerate its 2030 strategy which places residents at the centre. Rebuilding Tourism Competitiveness : Tourism Response, Recovery and Resilience to the COVID-19 Crisis. Step one might be to determine which businesses are essential for creating a sense of place, and which provide services valued by both residents and visitors. Tourism generates foreign exchange, supports jobs and businesses, drives regional development and underpins local communities. Information such as Googles Popular times and real-time business data, or live webcams, coupled with promotion of alternative places may be effective at reducing congestion and wear and tear of high-use sites while establishing new places for the visitor itinerary. Tourism was one of the first sectors to be deeply impacted by the pandemic, as measures introduced to contain the virus led to a near-complete cessation of tourism activities around the world. October 2020. Croatia: Forecasts for tourism flows are revised every 15 days, following a review of the latest travel safety recommendations and epidemiological situation. Indeed, this could be the start of a more holistic approach to managing visitor flow, to improve visitor experiences and even-out the peaks and troughs in demand. The longer the crisis continues, the more businesses and jobs will be lost, the greater the implications for traveller behaviour, and the tougher it will be to rebuild the tourism economy. OECD estimates are based on international tourism arrivals in the OECD area. Countries need to work together, as the actions taken by one government have implications for travellers and businesses in other countries, and for the global tourism system. The Travel Foundations expert team reviewed and strengthened these plans with a focus on increasing opportunities for community livelihoods, strong and resilient local supply chains, resource protection, and overall destination management capacities, drawing on its nearly two decades of experience globally. This requires more robust risk assessment and crisis response mechanisms, and closer co-ordination at local, national and international level. The pause in visitors has also opened up opportunities to manage tourism impacts which may have had negative impacts for instance many landlords have switched back from short-term (visitor) to long-term (residential) letting and in some places this may be a welcome trend that could now be reinforced the Mayor of Lisbon proposed to incentivise the conversion of short-term rental apartments to become affordable housing for key workers. The G20 Tourism Ministers, in the Diriyah Communiqu13, recognised that COVID-19 may result in a paradigm shift for the travel and tourism sector, and committed to continue to work together to support those most impacted by the crisis, and support a sustainable and inclusive recovery of the tourism sector14. 2019/01, OECD Publishing, Paris,https://doi.org/10.1787/d6072d28-en. Supply chains also need to be well understood so that opportunities can be identified for localising these and creating linkages with SMEs. It also developed new virtual reality and augmented reality tours to help access new markets not just in times of COVID, but for the long term. Many countries are also now developing measures to build a more resilient tourism economy post COVID-19. Box 2 presents some of the potential long term impacts which may arise, and their policy implications. Destinations and tourism businesses need help to be ready to provide tourism services to meet demand when the recovery comes. This note is an abridged version of the OECD Tourism Paper: Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 and preparing for recovery: https://doi.org/10.1787/47045bae-en . Destination Canada developed two possible scenarios for 2020, based on different possible conversion rates of outbound Canadian tourism towards domestic travel: Scenario 1: assuming only 20% of Canadian outbound tourism demand is converted to domestic tourism, tourism expenditures drop by 61% (to CAD 41.3 billion) and jobs attributable to tourism drop by 55% (to 324000). World Bank, Washington, DC. Reliable and consistent indicators are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of programmes and initiatives, and monitor progress on tourism recovery and resilience. There has also been a talent drain from leisure and hospitality to other sectors following job losses, which will have an impact on recovery. The tourism sector will be a very different in 2021 to what it was in 2019. For some destinations and their business partners, the pressure to recoup losses and regain liquidity will no doubt take over, with discounting and cost-cutting, and the potential for a race to the bottom. Vaccine roll out will take some time, and the sector is potentially facing stop/start cycles for some time. Crisis is a once in a lifetime opportunity to move toward fairer, more sustainable and resilient models of tourism development. Strengthened multi-lateral co-operation and robust support is essential to reactivate tourism. This is in line with recent projections by other organisations. Domestic tourism is providing a much needed boost to help sustain many tourism destinations and businesses, and will continue to be a key driver of recovery in the short to medium term. Tourism is at a crossroads and the measures put in place today will shape the tourism of tomorrow. Providing policy clarity and taking steps to limit uncertainty (to the extent possible) will be crucial to, Improving the evidence base to inform policy and business decisions will be key, through information gathering, research and data analysis, Crisis is a once in a lifetime opportunity to move toward fairer, more sustainable and resilient models of tourism development, OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2020 Issue 2:Preliminary version. However, the flow of spend to local businesses is often greater. Scenario 2: assuming 100% of Canadian outbound tourism demand is converted to domestic tourism, tourism expenditures drop by 43% (to CAD 59.7 billion) and jobs attributable to tourism drop by 41% (443500). While flexible policy solutions are needed to enable the tourism economy to live alongside the virus in the short to medium term, it is important to look beyond this and take steps to learn from the crisis, which has revealed gaps in government and industry preparedness and response capacity. In this environment, tourism is high on the global policy agenda, and similar calls have been made by other international institutions, including the United Nations10, World Bank11 and World Trade Organisation12. Not all businesses will survive the crisis and capacity in the sector is likely to be reduced for a period, limiting the recovery. OECD (2020),OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2020 Issue 2:Preliminary version, OECD Publishing, Paris,https://doi.org/10.1787/39a88ab1-en. In this environment, tourism is high on the global policy agenda, and similar calls have been made by other international institutions. This could rise to a fall of 4.2% of worlds GDP (USD 3.3 trillion) if international tourism flows are at a standstill for 12 months.5. The core of this framework, and key findings from all the Travel Foundations recovery planning work, are reproduced here. Latest UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates point to a 70% decline year-on-year in international tourist arrivals in the first eight months of the year, with the loss in export revenues from international tourism eight times that recorded in 2009 amid the global financial crisis.2 UNWTO now foresees a decline in international arrivals close to 70%, with recovery to pre-crisis levels not expected before 2023. Digitalisation in tourism services is expected to continue to accelerate, including a higher use of automation, contact-less payments and services, virtual experiences, real-time information provision. The campaign builds on their Care for Colorado campaign. An error occurred trying to play the stream. Box1 presents forecasts for domestic and international tourism performance in 2020 from selected countries. However, this has been hindered as many countries face further waves of the virus, and domestic tourism is expected to end the year significantly down on pre-COVID levels. However, for many others, this will be taken as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past and, crucially, to learn from each other. For domestic tourism, the central scenario forecasts a 49% decline in trips and spending.