Post-pandemic tourism: old wine in new bottles? A study of the European tourism industry post Covid-19: a qualitative content analysis of news media narratives

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the European tourism sector used to account for 50% of the world’s tourism arrivals on a yearly basis, making the continent the biggest producer of tourism in the world. Consequently, revenues produced by tourism and associated businesses, such as the food and drinks sector, contributed approximately 10% to Europe’s GDP. However, the tourism industry has been widely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, causing a standstill in global travel as mobility restrictions were implemented in an attempt to contain the virus. As a result, the European tourism industry is suffering huge losses, leaving many jobs at risk. However, the future remains unclear. Since the abrupt halt to tourism, a substantial body of work has been published about the future directions of the tourism sector. This study will add to this existing debate by providing a news media analysis, aiming to examine what narratives are employed to construct the future of the European tourism industry in particular. This is an interesting study setting because the context of Europe – and the European Union in particular – serves as an example of globalization in the sense that it is an ecosystem with multiple shared interests (trade, security, economics). Because of this, lessons learned from the European context can be applied to the wider context of worldwide interconnectedness that characterizes 21st century globalization. Within the context of tourism, it has also been demonstrated that news media play a paramount role in influencing and directing public perception and in turn, policy and governance decisions. Therefore, news analysis can serve to better understand public opinion as well as the agenda of policymakers – the agents that ultimately define what future tourism practices will look like. Ultimately, the goal of this study is to find an answer to the following research question: “How do European online news outlets construct the future of the European tourism industry after the impact of Covid-19?”. In order to reach an answer, 44 news articles published by a variety of European sources were analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis. In the end, multiple narratives were found in the dataset, ranging from the construction of a more sustainable industry, to a return to the previous status-quo. In the construction of a more sustainable tourism industry, many tourism trends were identified. Additionally, changes in consumer behaviour as a result of the health emergency were illuminated. Additionally, another key finding centred around the realisation for tourism practices to diversify in order to be more resilient. However, the main finding of this study is that news media were underpinned by a sense of uncertainty throughout, as all narratives were constructed with a sense of caution. This was not completely unexpected since health emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic are known to be characterized by heightened levels of uncertainty and fear.