Abstract
Unsustainable models of governance belonging to a widespread neoliberal mindset in developed countries have commonly been applied in the tourism industry. The management of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has provided exemplary lessons regarding the application of sustainable models of governance. Through a participatory research, guidances are provided to tackle the COVID-19 effects in the tourist sector, namely in the Spanish southwestern region of Sierra de Gata. Seventeen indicators are proposed to enhance the safety measures, commitment of tourist authorities, communities empowered and protection of common resources among tourism industry, tourist authority and communities to spread cooperative awareness, mutual trust and shared objectives. Using a sample of 161 tourism companies, we tested a model of tourism governance with two focus groups during May and October 2020. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilized. Based on the data attained from a questionnaire and interviews, a sustainable tourism model to recover the threatened tourism sector is proposed. Indeed, our results can be used to draw theoretical and practical conclusions such as 1.) connecting private and public interactions to tackle the spread of the virus and strategies to recover the damaged tourist sector, 2.) to develop corporative values among the tourist industry and communities, 3.) to enhance governance models (trusts, consortia, tourist boards, clusters) to promote cooperation, 4.) to improve the local participation of companies, communities and associations in decision-making, and 5.) to prioritize qualitative development goals over quantitative ones, in the touristic territory. These conclusions are applicable to other regions suffering from the damaging consequences of the pandemic.
Highlights
In recent decades, the neoliberal mentality has been spreading in governments and large corporations in developing countries (Seligman and Slobodian, 2020)
We started with the standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR) indicator, which is the average difference between the predicted variations and the covariance and those observed in the model (Hu & Bentler, 1998)
The considerable significance of the model of tourist governance we have proposed is corroborated by the fulfilment of most of our hypotheses
Summary
The neoliberal mentality has been spreading in governments and large corporations in developing countries (Seligman and Slobodian, 2020). Neoliberal practices have generated growth and increasing demand based on the promotion of free trade, combined with high global unemployment and the generation of unbalanced wealth (Whelan et al, 2009) Such socioeconomic inequality has reduced the public policies by privatizing state-owned companies and reducing the financing of public services (Allen et al, 2012). Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, travel agencies and the media and professionals have warned of the contagious risks of the virus in an interconnected world. Close collaboration between the public and private sectors, as a sustainable model, can be replicated from the health sector to other domains, such as tourism This investigation aims to transfer this model to the tourism sector through a case study of the tourist areas most seriously devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. That governance is based on enhancing; the safety measures, commitment of tourist authorities, empowering communities, protection of common resources. 3.) To spread a high cooperative awareness, mutual trust and shared objectives among the local tourist industry as a way to tackle the liberalism mindset that leads the individual interest and personal gain
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