Economic impacts of innovations in tourism marketing

Abstract

Our paper tackles the novel issues of the economic impacts and innovations in tourism marketing in the 21st century. The paper examines the economic impact of tourism and its influence on the economy and the tourism industry in general from the angle of innovations in the tourism marketing and the new challenges for the tourism industry brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted international tourism and caused major economic losses to the industry. We analyse the changes that the coronavirus pandemic made to the tourism industry and focus on the novel trends in tourism marketing that embeds the new informational technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), online Zoom tours, and other novelties that emerged after the lockdowns and social distancing imposed in the first half of 2020 in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection. Our results show that tourism marketing in the 21st century should be based on sustainable management and provide the right answers to questions about the impacts of tourism on the economy without sacrificing positive economic growth. We also show that information technologies might offer viable alternatives to massive international over-tourism and package tours ensuring both the safety of travel and deeper immersion into the travel experience before, during, and after the trip. Our outcomes might be useful for tourism scholars, policymakers, as well as stakeholders specializing in international tourism marketing.