Strategies of Tourism Service Providers to Cope with the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The situation with the COVID-19 pandemic has a negative impact on the development of tourism. It imposes restrictions on both tourism supply and tourism demand. Government lockdowns travel businesses and, at the same time, restricts the freedom of movement. Thus, the supply and demand sides have to cope with the exogenous shocks. The first evidence of experience and reactions of travel businesses was presented in early March 2020. Data from bookings describes how visitors start to adapt their travel behavior to the exit strategies. Even rural tourism is affected by the worldwide spread crisis. To highlight the impacts on rural tourism, this research focuses on middle and small-sized entrepreneurs (e.g., farmers, winemakers, local private rural museums, local accommodation providers;local providers of hippotherapy) and on local tourist organizations (e. g. DMO, tourist information centers) involved in rural tourism. The aim of this study is to show how they overcame the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, the study describes the changes in visitor behavior from the perspective of rural tourism providers. The research is based on a case study of South Moravia and applies both qualitative (a questionnaire survey) and quantitative (interviews) methods. The research data shows that rural tourism providers manage to cope with the government restrictions and tailor their services to new customers“ requirements as well. Besides the loss of incomes, tourism service providers face a decrease in the number of visitors, and thus they suffer a slump in sales. The majority of all rural tourism providers responded that their segment of visitors had changed. More specifically, the absence of foreign visitors was replaced by domestic ones. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.