Empirical Review on Tourism Demand and COVID-19

Tourism is one of the most remarkable multi-faceted phenomena that contributes enormously to economic development for most countries around the globe. The steady growth of the world economy, rapid development in transportation systems, and visa facilitation have bolstered the industry by facilitating higher accessibility for tourists. However, tourism is a vulnerable and competitive industry that need to accommodate the rapid changes of tourist demand and economies as well as consider environment effects. Apart from these dynamic needs, an unexpected health crisis may also lead to devastating impacts on the tourism industry. The recent pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus of 2019 (COVID-19) has brought severe disruptions to the global economy, and specifically caused a tremendous decline in the tourism industry. It is one of the industries tremendously impacted by the outbreak, grounding airplanes and severely limiting the ability of people to travel abroad. Once the vaccines are available and movement restrictions are lifted, the tourism sector can be one of the key industries for economic recovery. More than ever, studies on tourism demand modelling and forecasting are crucial. A review of literature on tourism demand takes into account recent studies on the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic