KOLIKO JE PANDEMIJA COVID-19 UTJECALA NA DIGITALIZACIJU TURIZMA? : završni rad

Posljedica pandemije COVID-19 unijela je brojne promjene u svakodnevne živote, a poremetila je i rad brojnih poduzeća i sektora. Turizam je jedan od onih koji su pretrpjeli najveće gubitke. Nakon prizemljenja zrakoplova i zatvaranja granica, bilo je nemoguće da se turizam kao takav održi. 2020. godina bila je najgora za turističku sezonu pokušalo se pronaći neko rješenje. Jedno od rješenja koje se ponudilo bila je digitalizacija turizma. Digitalizacija je proces koji bi za turizam značio promjenu opreme, strategije i pristupa. Korištenjem online platformi, virtualne stvarnosti te digitalnog marketinga i marketinga društvenih mreža, turizam je doveden na jednu novu razinu time je počela nova era u turističkom poslovanju. Međutim, ovaj je rad trebao preispitati kako je pandemija utjecala na proces digitalizacije turizma te je li to uopće posljedica turizma ili dva događaja koja su se odvila paralelno. Digitalna transformacija dugotrajan je proces koji se naširoko ispitivao kroz posljednje desetljeće. Kroz analizu dostupne literature i vlastitom procjenom, ovaj je rad zaključio da pandemija jest ubrzala proces digitalizacije, no nije potaknula taj proces. On je u turizmu bio prisutan i ranije. Svakako, pandemija je pomogla preispitati nove trendove, kao mišljenja potrošača te je dalje odredila smjer razvoja turizma.The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a number of changes in everyday lives and has disrupted the work of many businesses and sectors. Tourism is among those that suffered the greatest losses. After the planes being grounded and the borders closed, it was impossible for tourism as such to take place. 2020 was the worst for the tourist season and it was a priority to find a solution. One of the solutions offered was the digitization of tourism. Digitization is a process that for tourism would mean a change in equipment, strategy, and approach. Using online platforms, virtual reality, digital marketing and social media marketing, tourism has been brought to a new level thus ushering in a new era in the tourism business. However, this paper sought to find out how the pandemic affected the process of digitalizing tourism and whether it was at all a consequence of pandemic or the two events that simply took place in the same time. Digital transformation is a time-consuming process that has been widely examined over the last decade. Through analysis of the available literature and personal assessment, this paper concluded that the pandemic accelerated the digitization process, but did not start the process. It has been present in tourism before. Certainly, the pandemic has helped to rethink new trends, consumer opinions, and has further determined the direction of tourism development