Hosts and guests: Surfers’ experiences of travel and tourism in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people experienced travel disruptions and tourism destinations felt the economic sting of low visitor numbers. Using online interviews, this study followed 29 surfers over the course of 6 months to explore their experiences of the pandemic as travelers and hosts within tourism destinations in the U.S., Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, the Caribbean, and Latin America. It examines the effect of the pandemic on their travel plans, travel experiences, and tourism destinations where they lived. Many participants experienced travel disruptions and had to go through different decision-making and behavioral processes when they did travel. They also had conflicting feelings about decreased numbers of tourists at the beginning of the pandemic and when tourists began to return. The results have implications for travel companies to maintain flexible policies and the need to diversify coastal economies and possibly implement more separation between tourists and residents.