The 21st century has caused fundamental changes in the development of tourism. Low-cost flights have democratised air travel, and cheap fares have made air travel accessible to a wider number of people and social groups than before. Digitalisation has accelerated the inclusion of people in tourism in the field of booking, service evaluation, and experience sharing. The sharing economy has reduced the privilege of the hotel industry and created a new experience of “living like a local”. Up to the beginning of the ‘20s, tourism growth seemed unstoppable, with 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals recorded in 2019, exceeding the UNWTO’s earlier forecast. Many European tourist destinations suffered from the phenomenon of overtourism, with anti-tourist movements in many places. In fact, the period of total tourism has dawned, when tourist demand has spread both horizontally and vertically across the globe, governments and local authorities consider tourism as the future of economic development, devote their resources to tourism development and try to involve the widest possible groups of society in tourism mobility. However, the Covid19 pandemic changed everything in the blink of an eye, with restrictions and overtourism becoming undertourism, with international demand falling by 74% by 2020, and is not expected to reach record levels in 2022.
Today, tourism has reached another turning point. The “silence” of the Covid19 pandemic and of the political-turbulent post-pandemic has created an opportunity to rethink sustainability. At the same time, the reduction of tourism mobility has helped preserving natural and cultural heritages, which is a phenomenon also conditioned by the social and economic crisis. The Russo-Ukrainian war at the periphery of Europe and the related energy crisis and inflation are prompting researchers to formulate alternatives around the future of tourism. This new reality must be based on lessons from the past and on present trends, which will be useful to articulate a better future in a broad sense. Therefore, we are looking for answers to the question of how tourism can improve the quality of life, avoid negative environmental processes, and prevent crises. We invite researchers to contribute to this perspective with papers focusing on the balance between the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of tourism for a better future. This session will be organised by IGU Commission on Global Change and Human Mobility (Globility)

Gabor Michalko (1); Anna Irimias (2); Barbara Staniscia (3); Josefina Domínguez-Mujica (4)
(1) CSFK Geographical Institute, Hungary, (2) Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, (3) Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, (4) University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

 
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