Dear Colleagues,

Tourism and travel have been reduced to a minimum during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is currently unclear when travel and tourism will be resumed. The CEO of Airbnb has formulated this as follows:

“We don’t know exactly when travel will return. When travel does return, it will look different.”

It is expected that domestic tourism will be the first to recover after the end of the lockdown, which will lead to a major shift in travel flows. Cities with a high population density, dependent on festival and event tourism, have a disadvantage, while destinations in rural areas have an advantage. Meanwhile, videoconferencing, visits to second homes in rural areas, and day trips are booming.

The journal Tourism and Hospitality is planning a Special Issue to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism and hospitality. A special focus of the Special Issue is on quantitative studies using real-time data (social media data, mobility data, such as Google, website metrics, platform booking activity, etc.). 

Research questions and topics might include:

• Which destinations and tourist attractions will benefit from the COVID-19 crisis?
• How will tourist demand for urban and rural tourism change during the recovery phase?
• What effects will the shift in tourism demand have on domestic tourism in the countries and regions?
• What are the characteristics of regions that specifically ask tourists not to visit for fear that tourists will transport the virus from areas of high population density to rural areas?
• Modeling the duration of travel warnings for business travelers and tourists at the regional and country level
• Use of AirDNA data to model the change in short-term rentals (Airbnb)
• Real-time crisis forecasting for different sectors and regions—building scenario techniques (i.e., shape of the turndown: V-shaped recession: steep decline, quick recovery; U-shaped recession: long period between decline and recovery; W-shaped recession: quick recovery, second decline; L-shaped recession: an extended downturn)
• Contrafactual econometric models, including times series models and panel data models; estimating the extent of the loss across regions and sectors
• Perception of risk, vulnerabilities, and resilience by supply and demand sides using advanced methods such as conjoint analysis or choice models.

Studies that use real-time data are particularly welcome. Quantitative studies based on microdata are particularly appreciated (microeconometric methods, statistical model time series, and panel data models). Case studies for specific regions are also welcome. Standalone surveys should cover several regions to facilitate comparisons.

Dr. Martin Thomas Falk
Dr. Miriam Scaglione
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Tourism and Hospitality is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• COVID-19
• tourism demand
• short-term rentals
• government regulations
• social media data
• real-time forecasting crisis