Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

DOI

10.3727/154427322X16532053914713

Publication Title

Tourism in Marine Environments

Volume

17

Issue

1-2

Pages

103-111

Abstract

In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people experienced travel disruptions and tourism destinations felt the economic sting of low visitor numbers. Using online interviews, this study followed 29 surfers over the course of 6 months to explore their experiences of the pandemic as travelers and hosts within tourism destinations in the US, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, the Caribbean, and Latin America. It examines the effect of the pandemic on their travel plans, travel experiences, and tourism destinations where they lived. Many participants experienced travel disruptions and had to go through different decision-making and behavioral processes when they did travel. They also had conflicting feelings about decreased numbers of tourists at the beginning of the pandemic and when tourists began to return. The results have implications for travel companies to maintain flexible policies and the need to diversify coastal economies and possibly implement more separation between tourists and residents.

Comments

This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence.

Original Publication Citation

Usher, L. E. (2022). Hosts and guests: Surfers' experiences of travel and tourism in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tourism in Marine Environments, 17(1-2), 103-111. https://doi.org/10.3727/154427322X16532053914713

ORCID

0000-0002-5324-2332 (Usher)

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