Denialist and neoliberal approaches to tourism and the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, as well as speculation about tourism futures, have been the subject of intense academic debate. Yet, despite a prolific literature on the intimate relationship between tourism and (geo)politics, accounts of how conservative and (extreme) right-wing politics shaped tourism during the pandemic remain underdiscussed in tourism studies. Hence, the purpose of this commentary is to draw attention to this intertwined connection by stimulating critical reflection on the specific cases of the Netherlands and Brazil in terms of their politics and approaches to tourism during the pandemic. We highlight the key political ideologies that guided the actions of the respective governments of these countries, focusing on the social, economic, and political meanings of their outlooks in a globalized and neoliberal world.

Keywords:

• Tourism politics
• pandemic
• denialism
• neoliberalism
• Brazil
• Netherlands

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor Benjamin Iaquinto for their valuable comments. Maartje Roelofsen’s research was supported by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya postdoctoral stay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maartje Roelofsen

Maartje Roelofsen received her PhD in Sustainable Urban and Regional Development from the University of Graz in Austria. Her research examines digital transformations within the realm of tourism, urban space, and geography education.

Rita de Cássia Ariza da Cruz

Rita de Cássia Ariza da Cruz is a Professor at the Department of Geography, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her research interests are related to Regional and Tourism Geography, mainly involving the political economy of tourism and the space production.