From Learning How to Manage a Pandemic To Learning How to Be More Sustainable: Covid-19 Crisis Management and Double-level Learning

Abstract

Using an organizational learning lens, this article examines how Thailand as a destination has learned lessons from the COVID-19 crisis. Two levels of learning are identified: a first level of learning, in which the destination learns directly from the crisis (i. e., from managing the pandemic) and a second level of learning, which is disconnected from the initial subject of the crisis (i.e., overtourism and sustainability). The data show that this double-level learning was possible due to an intermediate step that helps making the link between the management of the crisis and the management of sustainability. The article suggests that the COVID-19 crisis has given opportunities for tourism actors to draw lessons on the management of overtourism and sustainability, even though the initial crisis was a health crisis and not an ecological one.