Has the outbreak of tourism research involving COVID-19 been cured by 2022?

Abstract

Expanding on the recommendation of Assaf et al. (2022), this research note provides insights and recommendations for the post-COVID-19 future of tourism research. We reviewed 56 recent papers related to COVID-19 published in the top three high quality tourism journals. Whilst there was a glut of relatively descriptive research on the pandemic, especially involving the economic impacts as a result of the virus, the results indicate that inadequate attention has been given to technology adoption and tourists’ well-being. Recent discussions of post-COVID-19 tourism have emphasised crisis management, which remains an important direction for future research. We recommend tourism recovery and resilience as one of the major focuses for tourism research and for greater importance to be attached to crisis planning and preparation so that lessons can be learned from COVID-19. Rather than a single country, cross-sectional studies, the adoption of cross-cultural, cross-contextual, and longitudinal study approaches is also recommended. Keywords COVID-19; Tourism; Future; Post-COVID-19 tourism research