Issues in tourist health, safety and wellbeing

At the time of writing the most pressing issue for the tourism industry is to survive economically until vaccines for COVID-19 can be widely distributed,allowing travel to recommence globally. While international travel has been largely suspended in 2020 the industry focus has turned to domestic tourism in most destinations, taking onboard COVID-safe measures to protect travellers. At the same time, the core issues of how to keep tourists safe and healthy more broadly have not changed. This chapter looks at current issues and examines the shift from risk management and prevention in tourism prevalent in the 1990s, where the industry had a very proactive approach to customer health and safety, to a more recent crisis management and recovery framework economically driven in response to significant challenging events. In the new normal customer care is in ascendency again with the need to anticipate health and safety issues, develop protocols and emergency plans, train staff and constantly monitor activity to deliver quality services. Tools and strategies that have fallen into disuse in recent years are still available and very relevant to address current issues. The tourism industry and individual tourists must accept that COVID-19 will have lasting impacts on the future of travel and recognise that the world will never completely return to the old ways of doing things. In the new normal we will need to embrace both new and existing ways of keeping travellers safe.