ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought fundamental changes to the business practices of the tourism industry; the tourism and hospitality markets actors are reformatting their strategies, trying to meet the volatile external environment, the changed structure of tourist flow and new patterns of consumer behavior. The article provides a retrospective analysis of international tourism development indicators on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic (2009-2019) and in the post-pandemic period (2020). It presents cross-country comparisons of key international tourism development indicators (travel and tourism competitiveness index, international tourism expenditure, international tourism revenue, the number of international arrivals, direct and total contribution of international tourism to GDP, investment in the tourism industry) in relation to those national economies of the world that in 2020, according to the World Monetary Fund, ensured GDP growth (the top ten countries, including Russia) by reducing net imports of tourism services. The data base of the study was mainly based on the results of research in the field of tourism, placed in the Knoema global repository (Big Data). The countries have been ranked and a matrix illustrating the position of each of them by all tourism industry development indicators has been built. The study has shown that the leaders of the rating for the positive impact of the tourism crisis in 2020 on GDP had average and below-average ratings for the main indicators of international tourism development in 2019; at the same time, the countries closing the list took, for the most part, the top lines of the rating. Determining the reasons for the identified contradiction requires additional research into the national tourism industries, taking into account the anti-COVID strategies and restrictions adopted in these countries, mutual "opening" of borders with neighboring countries, implemented new protocols of tourist security, vaccination commitments, etc. A review of scientifically grounded opinions on the prospects and directions of the tourism industry recovery in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is presented. A number of countries, including Russia, have recorded the potential to restore industry revenues, first of all, by reorientation of outgoing tourist flows to the domestic market.

Keywords

international tourism, COVID-19 pandemic, tourism industry, economic crisis of 2020

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About the Authors

Natalia Yu. Omarova – Doctor of Economics, Professor; Professor, Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Veliky Novgorod, Russia. E-mail: n-omarova@mail.ru. SPIN РИНЦ 6750-4452. ORCID 0000-0003-0678-4590
Natalia Yu. Belyakova – PhD of Historical Sciences, Docent; Associate Professor, Higher School of Economics University, Saint Petersburg, Russia. E-mail: nataliabelyakova@mail.ru. SPIN РИНЦ 5639-6347. ORCID 0000-0001-6605-8211
Denis A. Yurenskiy – External Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Economics, the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Assistant, Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Veliky Novgorod, Russia. E-mail: sw@sofbit.com

For citation

Omarova N.Yu., Belyakova N.Yu., Yurenskiy D.A. On the Development of International Tourism in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic // BENEFICIUM. 2022. Vol. 1(42). Pp. 92-99. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.34680/BENEFICIUM.2022.1(42).92-99