‘Quixotic’ tourism? Safety, ease, and heritage in post-COVID world tourism

ABSTRACT

The way the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is rapidly expanding all over the world, it may turn out that international as well as domestic tourism will be severely affected for at least 3–5 years. Health management in various countries and regions are not independent of the governments’ and political intervention, and the COVID-coping strategies followed are widely different. These are likely to ensure that tourism rebound will be marked by differences in health infrastructure and strategies for safety both in developing and developed countries. However, given that, apart from Europe, tourism to poorer developing countries in Asia and Africa will bear the brunt of immense loss of jobs and business, there is a way out that quick thinkers are likely to come up with: quick-to-reach and exotic natural or cultural heritage destinations, including UNESCO World Heritage sites that are safer from COVID infection due to few, but high-paying distanced tourists – who, as in ecotourism, directly help local people. This ‘quixotic’ (quick and exotic) tourism is likely to flourish in the near to middle term, given proper management, monitoring and support by governments, and adventurous tourists. However, such tourism needs caution, which this brief report discusses as well.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-COVID tourism
• easy access
• safety
• strategy
• heritage
• monitoring

Note on the contributor

Sagar Singh is former Honorary Editor of Tourism Recreation Research (Routledge), who has written 40 research papers and three books on tourism social science and management, including Shades of Green: Ecotourism for Sustainability (2004, published by The Energy and Resources Institute), and Rethinking the Anthropology of Love and Tourism (2019), published by Lexington Books, USA. A poet, story writer, social scientist, environmental researcher, he has written four books of poems (Sunshine After Rain, 2016; Days of Open Hand, 2017; The Knowing Eye, 2019; Requiem, 2020). He also writes computer algorithms for problems of sustainability.

Disclosure statement

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