The Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on the Tourism Global Value Chain

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism global value chain (GVC). Theoretical analysis revealed that being triggered by health factors, the coronavirus pandemic exerted an unprecedented shock on both the supply and demand sides of the tourism sector and the global economy. This resulted in implications that are more severe and less predictable than earlier crises that the world had witnessed. Analysis of the economic impact on various components of the tourism GVC revealed that measures adopted by world governments to protect their citizens resulted in massive damage to tourism related industries and to the global economy. The chapter concludes by predicting that the consequences of the current pandemic will inevitably give rise to new, more innovate tourism models, responding to the changing global economic and tourism landscape and to the change in consumers' characteristics and expectations.