Tourism in times of pandemics

The event of Covid-19 pandemic (Cruz, 2020) was long lasting and geographically widespread, reaching all regions of the planet. As soon as it spread around the world, it was revealed that populations, economic activities, places, regions, and countries were affected in different ways, just as their capacities to react to the deleterious effects of the crisis were very different.

It was around this guiding hypothesis that, from the initiative of a small group of Brazilian researchers, was formed the embryo of what would later become the largest international research network on the impacts of the pandemic on the tourism sector in the world.

The present dossier results from the uninterrupted work, carried out in the last two and a half years, by the International Research Network "Tourism in times of pandemics: a multi and trans-scalar analysis", whose general coordination is housed in the Laboratory of Regional Studies, Department of Geography, School of Philosophy, Literature and Humanities, University of São Paulo (USP), and which currently brings together researchers from 32 educational and research institutions from Brazil, Argentina, Mozambique and Portugal. This dossier is added to four others, published in widely circulated journals in Brazil (“Caderno Virtual de Turismo”, “Geouerj” and “Formação Review”) and abroad (“Confins”, a French_Brazilian Review). Two other books - one of essays, published in early 2021 by FFLCH/USP, and one with research results achieved throughout this period (in preparation) - denote the great working capacity of this Network researchers , as well as their commitment to the production of critical knowledge about the effects of the pandemic crisis in the tourism sector, about the responses given by society, the State and market agents in the face of the imponderable, and about prospects for the future of the activity.

The multiscalar approach encompassed case studies on the national, regional, and local scales, taking into account the inter-scalarity of the processes and their insertion in the world totality, guided by a dialectical movement between the general and the particular. In this sense, the results of the research carried out in the Network confirmed the general hypothesis that the impacts of the pandemic on tourism manifested themselves in sensibly different ways in the different places, regions, and countries studied.

With regard to methodological aspects, in addition to the multi and cross-scale approach, the Network has also analyzed the impacts of Covid-19 on the different characteristic activities of tourism such as hotels, travel agencies, and events, in various segments such as cultural/ heritage tourism, nature tourism, and tourism and second homes, and on structural and structuring aspects of tourism, such as public policies for the sector, transportation, circulation and mobility, work in tourism, and tourist behavior.

Through the method of comparative analyses, the set of results obtained so far has allowed the Network researchers to grasp more acutely local, regional and national particularities involved with each case study, effectively contributing to a comprehensive and well-founded understanding of the impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector.

As Serra (2022, p. 1) states, "the force of reality stimulates us to know more about what still needs to be explained." Thus, even after the mass vaccination, the cooling down of the pandemic, and the large research production around the world on its impacts on the tourism sector, there is still much to understand and explain regarding this recent past and the present, so that we can perhaps contribute to building a better future.

For this issue, the Network brings five articles that, through the analysis of cases, provide the reader with theoretical, methodological and conceptual elements that allow us to situate the pandemic and tourism in time and space, illuminating contradictions and idiosyncrasies involved in these processes, which are still ongoing, even with the cooling of the crisis.

The first of these, entitled "Climate, political and health vulnerability of tourism in Mozambique," by José Júlio Júnior Guambe and José Julião da Silva, reflects on the geographical conditions in which Mozambican tourism resources are located and the limitations and challenges imposed on tourism and on the country by extreme events such as cyclones, floods, terrorism, and, more recently, the pandemic.

The second article, "Incidence of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism in the Northeast region of Brazil," by Cristiane Alcântara de Jesus Santos, Antônio Carlos Campos, and Larissa Prado Rodrigues, analyzes the contribution of tourist flows and circulation in the dissemination of the virus in the northeastern region of Brazil and shows the damage generated by the crisis in the labor market of the tourism sector.

In the sequence, the article "Crises, tourism and dynamics of the means of lodging in Natal/RN: spatial concentration", by Maria Aparecida Pontes da Fonseca and Hugo Aureliano da Costa, reveals, from the mapping of data from the hotel sector in the capital city of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, the spatial dynamics of the companies before the real estate-financial crisis of 2007-2008, the national political crisis of 2015-2016, and the health and economic crisis of 2020-2022.

The following article, "Reflections on tourism in Petrópolis-RJ: impacts of Covid-19 and the rains in the summer of the year 2022," by Maria Angélica Maciel Costa, Claudia Corrêa de Almeida Moraes and Isabela de Fátima Fogaça, addresses the public policies, opportunities, and strategies that the public authorities, autonomous workers, and entrepreneurs of the tourism sector have launched hand in the face of the pandemic, floods, and landslides, which made tourism practices unviable in certain periods between 2020 and 2022 in the mountainous municipality in focus.

Finally, the article "Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the territorial dynamics of tourism in São Paulo's municipalities of heritage relevance", by Gabrielle Cifelli, selects small and medium-sized inland and coastal destinations and contributes to the understanding of the behavior of tourism demand, mainly coming from large urban centers, in the valuation of certain attributes of places in times of pandemic.

We wish you all a good read.

References

• CRUZ, R. C. A. O evento da Covid-19 e seus impactos sobre o setor turismo: em busca de uma análise multi e trans-escalar. Raoit, v. 14, 2020. Número especial. doi: https://doi.org/10.17648/raoit.v14n4.6636
  » https://doi.org/10.17648/raoit.v14n4.6636
• SERRA, H. R. H. Editorial. Formação, Presidente Prudente, v. 29, n. 55, 2022. Dossiê.

Edited by

Article editor:

Edilson Alves Pereira Júnior

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  16 Dec 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  27 May 2022
• Accepted
  25 July 2022