Tourism and Hospitality Sector - New Dimensions in a Post COVID-19 World: A Conceptual Analysis from an Academic Perspective

Abstract

Recent years has witnessed loss of human life as well as the physical and mental strain to the large populations of the world, which could be termed as disastrous. Many researchers (Arasli et al., 2020; Rezapouraghdam & Karatepe, 2020; Lim & To, 2021; Karatepe et al., 2021) have demonstrated that COVID-19 had a significant impact on the economy and human life globally. In fact, the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic first appeared in the late December 2019 in China and then moved into other countries, before reaching India in March 2020. Further, the pandemic continued into 2021 & 2022 in the developed, developing and underdeveloped countries. Added to this, Governments are meeting the costs of dealing with the pandemic and supporting business and citizens. Therefore, we consider how both the pandemic and resultant economic issues have and will affect tourism and hospitality–specifically sustainable tourism & hospitality that will develop and sustain local communities in a balanced way for the benefit of future generations. In fact, beyond the immediacy of the situation and the management of the short-term consequences of the crisis, we must look ahead to the future, to the world of tomorrow, which will inevitably be different from all past societies and all past economies. This paper conceptually focuses on evaluating the potential effects of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality industry in India and post COVID-19 settings, recovery strategies and new normal and suggests the theoretical development and policy implication of this relationship.

Keywords: COVID-19, Tourism, Economic, Sustain, Mental Strain

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