Safety and Tourism in the Post-COVID 19 Era

The COVID-19/SARSCOV2 global pandemic has originated inter alia health, economic and social crises. With limitations enforced by national governments, a global war on the virus has been followed by a vaccine war with scarcity problems on the production side, as many countries are struggling to protect their citizens. Tourism, one of the world´s most important economic areas with social-cultural, political and environmental impacts, has witnessed these problems from up close. Despite this, changes operated by the pandemic have taken tourism researchers and practitioners to profile new tourists, elaborate new ways to engage with them, follow emergent market tendencies, rethink tourism businesses and redevelop new tourism strategies for the future. This essay-like contribution is developed under the premise that because the rules of the touristic game have changed, we can rethink tourism concepts in a way that reflects the vast impacts of the pandemic upon the constant change, anxiety and volatile times we are experiencing as a society. I approach this discussion by briefly mentioning the implications that originated several changes observed in tourism studies by the so-called “cultural, critical and creative turns”. Then, drawing from the concept of transmodernity, tourism safety is addressed in a broad and updated view in the context of the tourism phenomenon in a post-pandemic reality. By aligning the discourse of transmodernity with the repercussions of the “cultural, critical and creative turns” in tourism studies I intend to contribute to the ongoing debated about how tourism consumption will develop in the near future.