Abstract
Academic papers on the COVID-19 pandemic and tourism adopt the perspective of strengthening tourism resilience or recognize the ongoing crisis as an opportunity for reflection and the need to redefine tourism development strategies. This article examines these issues using the example of Kraków, a tourism city that, on the eve of the pandemic outbreak, was experiencing symptoms of overtourism. Using a case study approach, the authors illustrate the strategies applied at the city level, as well as the range of measures and actions used to support the tourism industry during the full pandemic year. The Kraków case shows that the pandemic time can be used to reorganize relations between local tourism stakeholders and to create a new formula for a tourism city in the so-called ‘new normal’. In addition, the exploratory case study allows for the formulation of research problems for further work on tourism cities responses to COVID-19. This can focus on a revision of the tourist offer and profile; the role of culture and the accompanying technology-facilitated innovations; the continuation of ‘being-a-tourist-in-your-own-city’, as promoted in the pandemic; tourists’ reactions to introduced changes; and shaping (new) relations between tourism stakeholders in the (post)pandemic city.
Highlights
Accepted: 9 July 2021A rich body of literature shows that tourism and hospitality are sensitive to crises [1,2,3,4].While natural and human-made disasters are quite common in tourism [5] and many destinations have developed successful resilience and crisis mitigation strategies [6])
In stage two, defined by the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) report as ‘tourism industry recovery’, four strategies are recommended as solutions to speed up the recovery of the tourism and hospitality industry for cities [21]
In line with the research objectives, the article has presented measures and actions against COVID-19 proposed by the WTCF [21] which can be implemented at the urban level
Summary
A rich body of literature shows that tourism and hospitality are sensitive to crises [1,2,3,4]. The authors of the second thematic group consider this crisis as an opportunity to reflect on existing mass tourism policies and to redefine tourism development pathways [5]. They call for transformations in (global) tourism policies in order to make them more consistent with sustainable development goals. There is a need for empirical papers, especially case studies (first exploratory and explanatory [22]), which will allow for an in-depth appreciation and understanding of this new (urban) issue, as well as for the formulation of new research questions appropriate to the new situation and the challenges facing tourism cities. The main aim of this article is to present the tourism city’s response to the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis related to the tourism sector, focusing on Kraków’s measures during the first year of struggle with the pandemic
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