Regional aspects of the restructuring of tourist flows in Europe in the 21st century

Abstract

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global tourism is not limited to the crisis in the tourism industry. The pandemic was accompanied by a spatial restructuring of tourist flows. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of this restructuring at the regional level of European countries under the influence of the pandemic and geopolitical factors. The information base for the study is statistics of tourist arrivals for 427 regions of European countries in the period from 2003 to 2022. The entire time interval of the study, in accordance with the peculiarities of the spatial restructuring of tourist flows, is divided into three periods (pre-pandemic, pandemic and the beginning of recovery from the pandemic). The analysis was carried out using a cartographic research method. The main trend of spatial restructuring of tourist flows from 2003 to 2019. was their partial redistribution in favor of the regions of the countries of the eastern part of Europe (post-socialist countries) and Turkey. During the pandemic (2020–2021), the greatest reduction in tourist flow characterized countries specializing in inbound tourism. Countries that managed to move towards increasing domestic tourist flows (including Russia) found themselves in a more advantageous position. In 2022, within foreign Europe, due to the persistence of sanitary restrictions in a number of countries at the beginning of the year, it was possible to observe a temporary redistribution of tourist flows from the central part of Europe to its periphery.