Sustainable Tourism and Changes in Visitor Profiles in the COVID Times

Udržateľný cestovný ruch a zmeny v profiloch návštevníkov v časoch COVIDu

Stanislava Pachrová

In: Geografické informácie (Geographical Information), Ročník (Volume) 26, Číslo (Issue) 1, 2022, p. 244-259, ISSN 1337-9453

DOI: 10.17846/GI.2022.26.1.244-259

Abstract

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world. The tourism industry has been hit a lot. The numbers of tourist arrivals are lower, many entrepreneurs face a problem if they continue their business or not, destinations are trying to rebrand and create new products. Nobody can say for sure what the future will bring. Tourism in the Czech Republic is struggling with this situation, too. The numbers of domestic tourists' overnight stays were more than 20% lower when comparing 2020 to 2019, and the numbers of international tourists' overnights were over 70% lower (Machová, 2021). This study discovers how much the pandemic situation has changed visitor profiles on the example of the Czech Vysočina Region. College of Polytechnics Jihlava conducted field researches among visitors of the region. Older research results show visitor characteristics from 2015. 2,432 visitors of the destination were interviewed from March to September 2020 to create an up-to-date visitor profile. Unfortunately, due to a massive decline of international arrivals, results about international tourists are not statistically relevant. Domestic visitors show no significant differences in their sociodemographic characteristics or in motives for visiting the destination.

Keywords: COVID-19, Czech Republic, destination management, sustainable tourism, visitor profile

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