A DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION FOR THE ENTROPY OF RURAL TOURISM IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19

Abstract

The tourism industry was one of the world’s greatest markets, until the world was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, tourism managers have to carefully assess the impact of epidemics on their businesses and develop new risk management methods to cope with the crisis. The current pandemic has created an opportunity for the development of rural tourism. This study aims to present a mathematical modeling of the entropy of rural tourism in the context of COVID-19 and a differential equation verified by this entropy. The model presented in this paper reflects the entropy of the preference for this type of tourism and a differential equation that models its variation. This paper aims to offer a tool to measure uncertainty regarding this topic. The model can be generalized and applied to any epidemic. The model could be used by specialists in quality management and mathematical modeling, managers of rural tourism organizations, local authorities, to estimate the entropy regarding how rural tourism has been and is still impacted by the COVID-19. The results obtained will help policy makers take necessary strategic and operational decisions, along with maximizing the profit of the rural tourism organization as well as the safety of the tourists