lthough the travel and tourism industry has grown steadily over the past several decades, and has been a reliable contributor to worldwide economy, the global spread of the novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic had (and continues to have) a significant impact on the industry.

In the months following the January 30th classification by the World Health Organization of COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern, the global travel and tourism industry has experienced an unprecedented decline. For example, commercial flights per day fell from over 100,000 in January to 78,000 in March, to 29,000 in April. This interruption in service resulted in an estimated $314 billion reduction in revenues, approximately 55% from 2019 levels. Similar patterns were observed in hotels, bookings through services such as Airbnb, and other travel related businesses.

Given the evolving progress of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recovery in the travel and tourism industry may take several different courses depending on a number of outside factors. The World Travel and Tourism Council consider factors such as adherence to protective behaviors (i.e. mask wearing), implementation of testing and tracing, and the eventual distribution of a potential vaccine in establishing best case, baseline, and worst case scenarios. Worst case estimates forecast almost 200 million jobs lost, and more than $5.5 billion in lost revenue.

The extraordinary decline witnessed in the travel and tourism industry in response to COVID-19 exemplifies an important point: that travel and tourism is highly integrated.

Just as it is impossible to fully consider tourists without also considering their destination, the environment, etc., it is not possible to fully consider the travel and tourism in isolation. As illustrated by the current COVID-19 pandemic, the travel and tourism industry is deeply interwoven with a variety of larger global forces.

Beyond just the virus itself, the COVID-19 pandemic shows us how political (e.g. restrictions on travel to/from certain destinations), economic (e.g. some destinations reopening despite the danger, in order to stimulate their economies), and other forces influence travel and tourism as an industry, and a pattern of behavior.

For all the discussion regarding the travel and tourism industry, it is important to ask a very simple question: Why do people travel?

There is no single theory or framework that can be used to explain all leisure tourism behavior. For the purposes of this lesson, we will focus on two powerful, commonly cited motivations that may apply across a range of situations and individuals: Pleasure and Novelty.

A large motivating factor for many tourists is simply to do something pleasurable during their leisure time.

Research would seem to validate the idea that leisure travel is related to positive emotions. Positive emotions have been shown to increase before leisure travel, remain elevated and peak during travel, and decline afterwards:

In some instances, emotions do not simply return to their previous baseline, they decline further as a result of post-trip factors such as a return to work, sadness about leaving a destination, social disconnection, etc.:

Novelty presents another potentially compelling motivation to engage in leisure travel. Travel motivated by novelty involves the desire to escape the usual routine, try something new and unique, and potentially engage in risk-taking and thrill-seeking behaviors.

Different travelers have different preferences for novelty and make travel decisions based on those preferences. It is even possible to categorize travelers according to their novelty preferences, along a continuum from those that have very low desire for novelty, to those that are extremely motivated by novelty.

• Mass tourists prefer prepackaged tours, cruises, and chain restaurants
• Explorers interact with locals, avoid regular tourist destinations, and still maintain familiarity mainly with accommodations.
• Drifters prefer adventure travel, individual exploration, and have low use of tourism facilities.

It is important to note that just as there can be varying degrees of novelty-seeking behavior between travelers, variations can also exist within the same individual, depending on the context. The same individual may pursue novelty while backpacking in the Peruvian Andes, but also seek comfort in a road trip to common tourist destinations with friends and family.

Multiple motivations may also come into play at one time, and in varying degrees of importance. As mentioned previously, there is no single theory or framework that can fully capture the motivations of leisure travelers, and it would be a mistake to oversimplify such a complex phenomenon.

References

• Cohen, E. (1972). Toward a sociology of international tourism. Social research, 164-182.
• Considine, J. D. (March 30, 2000). ‘N Sync smashes sales record. The Baltimore Sun. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2000-03-30-0003300267-story.html
• Mitas, O., Yarnal, C., Adams, R., & Ram, N. (2012). Taking a peak at leisure travelers positive emotions. Leisure Sciences, 34(2), 115-135.
• Walker, G. J., Scott, D., & Stodolska, M. (2016). Leisure matters: the state and future of leisure studies. Sagamore Publishing. Chapter 11, Tourism.
• World Tourism Organization. (n.d.). Glossary of Tourism Terms. https://www.unwto.org/glossary-tourism-terms