The COVID-19 Crisis, Tourism and Sustainable Development

This paper explores some of the relationships between tourism and sustainable development through the lens of the COVID-19 crisis. The paper provides an outline of the COVID-19 crisis, and explores some of the relationships between tourism and sustainable development as illuminated by the COVID-19 crisis. The paper suggests that the COVID-19 crisis has not only posed a range of major challenges for the tourist industry but that it has also signalled some environmental changes that may be central to the transition to a more sustainable future, highlighted some of the inherent contradictions and complexities within the concept of sustainable development, and suggested some radical solutions to the challenges of sustainability. This is not an empirical paper, rather it rehearses some of the arguments about the relationships between the tourism industry and sustainability and draws on the views and opinions of a number of authorities on sustainable development within the industry. As such, the paper offers an accessible review of some of the relationships between tourism and sustainable development at a very testing time for the industry.