Tourism has regularly proven to be one of the most resilient sectors to societal crises, whether these crises are economical, sanitary, due to natural disasters or triggered by terrorist actions. The most recent example is the last decade during which tourism has witnessed uninterrupted global growth reaching 1.5 million arrivals in 2019 while facing three major crises of different nature.
Yet, when it occurs, every crisis generates alarming discourses about the future of tourism and its capacity to recover. It was the case during the 9/11 terrorist attack, or the 2008 economic downturn and it is very much the case now when the world is facing a pandemic crisis of extraordinary scale.
The aim of this project is to create a forum for researchers as well as industry representatives to meet, exchange and reflect upon the resilience and rejuvenation of tourism in times of crises in order to define collectively actions and solutions to foster and sustain such capacity. Very recent initiatives related to the impact of COVID-19 on tourism such as those from the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (ITTR) or the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TATRA) already indicate a strong interest and engagement in this field of research. Moreover, crisis management and recovery strategies are more and more seen as critical for the sustainability of the global economy and in particular of the tourism and travel industry as demonstrated by recent reports from the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
Concretely, this forum will take the form of an annual event on Tourism Resilience and Rejuvenation (TRAR) to be first organised in 2021. This event will also serve as a platform to launch a European Network on Tourism Resilience and Rejuvenation (ENTRAR). To organize it, two research centers are joining forces: the Center for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation (CiTUR) in Portugal and the Institute of Tourism (ITO) in Switzerland.
Having both a close link to the tourism industry and a large research network, they will together organize a forum during which researchers working on the impact of the current sanitary crisis on tourism will meet professionals managing the consequences of this impact. The aim of this forum will be to foster an agile and creative process of defining and sharing solutions that are supported by research and tailored to the needs of the tourism industry and its stakeholders. As the concept of the forum will be developed to become a yearly event, its location will alternate every second year between Portugal and Switzerland.
