Business innovations in Poland’s tourism sector during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the tourism and hospitality industry. Lockdowns undermined the existence of many companies in this sector; some businesses were forced to shut down. Everyone was looking for alternative ways to continue doing business and survive the crisis. One of the obvious choices regarding the necessary transformation of activities was the Internet. Since it was impossible to go on doing business the usual way, many companies moved their activity to the virtual sphere. This, however, required developing new business models and the Internet turned out to have a lot of potential in this regard. The following article contains a comparison of Internet-based business models used in the hotel, tourism and catering industries. The study is based on a review of literature, the trade press and regulations as well as case studies. The comparison focuses on new information content added to websites, ways of maintaining contact / relationship, provision of basic services and marketing communication. The pandemic created many new opportunities and forced companies to develop new ways of implementing existing services or introduce new solutions, which were identified in the study. The most important finding is that while the pandemic was a difficult period for the industry, it has generated some added value that can expand the range of available services.