1164 | 978 | IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON TOURISM ACTIVITY: the case of the Canary Islands and Cuba, archipelagos on both Atlantic shores | Mercedes Rodríguez Rodríguez1, Manuel González Herrera2 y Josefina Domínguez-Mujica1 

When discussing the socioeconomic impact of the great pandemic on urban tourism structures, the focus is directed toward the cities of developed countries. However, its effects have been much more important in the economies of the countries with the lowest income level, whose tourism development generated wealth and possibilities for progress, especially in their cities. In those territories with the most significant economic fragility and where dependence on the tourism sector is high, the pandemic and post-pandemic crisis is still strongly felt. This is the case of the Cuban archipelago, where the increase in accommodation facilities satisfied a growing tourist demand while generating socioeconomic well-being for many families and, indirectly, recovery and improvement of its urban structures. Likewise, it is analyzed comparatively with the Canary Islands, island territories on both sides of the Atlantic, which due to their tourist vocation, suffered a strong impact in the pandemic stage, which has caused a “pause” of great repercussion in the urban-tourist evolution of these spaces and have shown a different post-pandemic recovery process. Our contribution to this Congress is based on an analysis of the pre-pandemic urban-tourist evolution patterns in Cuba and the Canary Islands, evaluating their local repercussions from a socioeconomic point of view and on the tentative study of the effects of the great pandemic. To do this, we use statistics published in both territories that reveal tourism’s socioeconomic implications before the pandemic and its effect in the later stage. Therefore, we contrast the data on the effects that the bankruptcy of this activity has entailed based on some parameters of a health and socioeconomic nature. The question remains on the horizon as to whether the differentiated post-pandemic recovery will lead to a resumption of the urban-tourist development trends of the past.

Mercedes Rodríguez Rodríguez1, Manuel González Herrera2 y Josefina Domínguez-Mujica1 
1Department of Geography, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. C/Pérez del Toro, 1. 35003. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España. 2Department of Social Sciences and Administration, Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez. Av. Plutarco Elías Calles #1210 Fovissste Chamizal. 32310. Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Méx.
978