Tourism and the next normal: can we ‘Build Back Better’?

While lockdowns, restrictions, and border closures forced a synchronised worldwide travel slowdown, tourism is still evolving before our eyes.

The pandemic is changing the ways we think, live, work and play, which in turn, are transforming tourism demand and supply alike. Social distancing, mobility tracing apps, digital health passports, contact tracers are some of the new realities affecting how and where we travel, what we do and how we experience our holidays. The COVID-19 has deepened people’s connection with digital services (mobile and contactless bookings/services, virtual visits to museums and destinations), accelerated socio-technical innovation and digital divides, it revived discussions about the inter-relations and impacts of tourism with globalization, climate change and our ‘unquestionable’ assumption of achieving prosperity through continuous economic growth. Some of these changes may be temporary and transitional, others are here to stay.

This talk discusses the impacts of COVID-19 on tourists, tourism companies and destinations alike. It also debates whether and how tourism stakeholders have and/or should reflect on their previous practices, to rethink their attitudes and behaviours, to reset social values and priorities, re-think and re-shape their practices. Is COVID-19 a transformational stressor enabling us to re-set a much better tourism focusing on sustainability, responsibility and well-being?

Bio

Marianna Sigala is Professor at the University of South Australia and Director of the Centre for Tourism & Leisure Management. Prior to her current position she has been an academic staff at the Universities of Strathclyde and Westminster in the UK, and the University of the Aegean (Greece). Her academic credentials are combined with her professional experience in the tourism industry.

Her interests include services and experience management, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in tourism and hospitality, as well as wine tourism. She is a widely published and multi-awarded authority: nine books, numerous papers in academic journals, and (keynote) presentations in international conferences. She has a long record of leadership and participation in international research projects funded by various entities such as the E.U. and the Council of Europe. She is a past President of EuroCHRIE and a past member of the executive board of ICHRIE and IFITT. She currently serves at the executive board of CAUTHE.

She is the co-editor of the Journal of Service Theory & Practice, and the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management. In 2016, she has been awarded the prestigious EuroCHRIE Presidents’ Award for her lifetime contributions and achievements to tourism and hospitality education. Since 2020, Professor Sigala is also appointed as Research Fellow of CAUTHE.

7:00pm @Robin Hood, 315 Portrush Road, Norwood 5067