The Covid19 pandemic: threat or opportunity for the global tourism and hospitality industry?

Covid19 has deeply affected the world tourism industry with a serious contraction in mobility flows. Before the pandemic at an international level, a much-debated issue concerned the phenomenon of “overtourism” understood as the massive presence of tourists in a destination to the point of transforming the destination itself making it no longer suitable for residents. The growth of tourism has been accompanied by the concentration of tourist flows to specific areas, causing crowding and problems with carrying capacity and environmental sustainability, and by the “imitation effect,” whereby emerging economies mimic the tourist behavior of Western economies. Additionally, there are governance issues concerning the resources of destination countries, relationships with airlines (primarily low-cost carriers), and technological developments. In this context, the term “overtourism” has begun to be used in the recent literature with particular regard to models of tourism development, some city destinations, and issues of sustainability.