By Tafadzwa Matiza
Fast forward to 2021, and the pandemic has all but crippled
the sector. Tourism demand – arrivals, travel, and the use of facilities and
services – contracted by an estimated 74% in 2020. This has cost the industry
upwards of $1.3 trillion and has compromised millions of jobs.
The African region shed an estimated $83 billion in GDP
contribution (down by 49.2%), and lost up to 7.2 million industry jobs compared
to 2019 levels.
The impact of health crises such as Sars, H1N1 and Ebola
weren’t on the scale of the disaster brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. The
impact was made worse by government interventions to mitigate the spread and
effect of the virus.
But vaccines offer hope for the industry. Its recovery must
begin with domestic tourism. In 2019, domestic tourism accounted for only 50.2%
of the travel and tourism receipts in the sub-Saharan African region – lower
than other regions.
It’s critical for African destinations to promote domestic
tourism, which also paves the way for international tourism. The key will be
the ability to predict the potential effects of COVID-19 on tourist behaviour.
Perceived risk
As a primer to a series of future studies, I reviewed the
literature on health-related perceived risk and its potential impact on
post-crisis tourism. It’s possible to anticipate the negative influence that
perceived risk will have on tourist behaviour, and ultimately domestic and
international tourism demand.
My study provides insights into the lessons learnt from
previous crises in tourism, and what tourism practitioners did to mitigate the
effects of perceived risk on tourists. It also provides practical actions the
sector can take to recover.
Previous studies of tourist behaviour show that the
uncertainty and negative consequences of tourism often go beyond the crisis
event. My study explored physical (health-related), psychological and social
risk as influences on tourist behaviour.
Heightened perceived risk triggers feelings of anxiety and
apprehension associated with travel and tourism. This affects the brand image
of the crisis-affected countries and influences tourists’ decision-making. As a
result, tourists delay their trips and change their choice of destination. In
some cases they cancel their planned tourist activity.
For example, as a result of the 2003 Sars outbreak, some
Asian countries, such as China and Singapore, suffered significant slumps in
tourism demand. Tourists avoided travelling to the region because of health and
safety concerns.
The Ebola outbreaks in Sierra Leone and Guinea in 2008, and
the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) 2012 in Saudi Arabia also elicited
a similar response from tourists.
International studies are gathering evidence of the impact
of the Covid-19 crisis on tourist behaviour. But previous tourism research
predicts a situation of multiple risk factors influencing tourists. Critical to
post-crisis tourism will be mitigating the potential health and safety concerns
that may discourage tourism.
My study found that multiple stakeholders need to be
involved in the tourism recovery process. These include:
- National governments. They must harness the financial, human and technical resources required to support the tourism recovery. Critically, governments must effectively manage both the efficient roll-out of vaccination programmes and the responsible reopening of the tourism economy to domestic and international tourists.
- Custodians of destination brands. Marketers must promote African destinations as attractive but socially responsible locations. They must share information such as measures put in place to protect tourists, in order to help people make their decisions.
- Tourism service providers. Most importantly, tourism product owners must innovate and adapt their tourism offerings to meet the demand for safe domestic tourism. This would kick-start the tourism sector and prepare it for international tourism.
Going forward
The results of my study have significant implications for
African tourism practitioners. The domestic tourism sector, much like the
global tourism industry, faces a multifaceted challenge. It comes from the
tourism demand side (perceived health, social and psychological risk) and the
supply side (massive fiscal deficits, job losses, business liquidation and
human capital depletion).
Tourism practitioners need to be aware of the influence of
health-related physical risk on tourists’ perceptions and intentions. It’s
likely that tourists will feel that home is safer than abroad. This would be a
benefit for domestic tourism.
Moreover, measures such as promoting mask-wearing,
sanitising, physical distancing, digitising some service processes and
promoting vaccination will be vital to the recovery and promotion of domestic
tourism. Tourism practitioners must work out how to time supply and demand.
This can include product innovation and pricing reforms to cater to domestic
tourists and keep up with new tourist demands.
Tafadzwa Matiza, senior lecturer and researcher in tourism,
North-West University
This article was first published on The Conversation. Click
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