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The Covid -19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on the travel industry. The consequences of the virus are beginning to be seen in the form of mergers, closures or acquisitions that will leave behind a new landscape in the travel agency sub -sector. This study analyses the situation of Spanish travel agencies and, on the basis of this research, proposes a manual of good practices for their recovery. A total of 726 travel agents were contacted through an online survey. The study shows that the current situation is perceived as a turning point from which a change must take place in the market, ranging from technological innovation to the marketing of more sustainable products, including a possible change of business model. After participatory observation in the sector and analysis of the results obtained, a manual of good practices is proposed in the form of a decalogue which, when put into practice, will help to guarantee the future of travel agencies, already affected by the changes brought about by the appearance of new players in the area of tourism intermediation

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PurposeThe Internet has encouraged rural tourism experience providers to develop a new management strategy that opts for disintermediation to access the market. In this context, incoming travel agencies (destination management companies [DMCs]), despite the local component, lose capacity to promote the rural tourism. The main question is what kind of relationship between stakeholders would enhance effective intermediation processes between them. The paper examines such constraints and limitations of existing relationships between small local rural tourism producers and DMCs.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Basque Country region of northern Spain as a case study, the authors used a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology based on semi-structured in-depth interviews and an online survey. The data analysis strategy used incorporated descriptive and exploratory factor analysis (EFA).FindingsIn this research, most of the tourism disintermediation factors identified in previous literature were reinforced when tested in the rural context. The results confirm that power, value, product differentiation, digitisation and stakeholder collaboration are key elements. The value provided in the international segment by DMCs, though, was found to be irrelevant.Originality/valueThis article contributes to filling a gap in the literature on rural tourism destination management from a holistic view of the destination understanding the business-to-business (B2B) relationship among stakeholders in rural tourism. This paper focuses on those elements that create value for local producers to sell the products through intermediaries and provides a framework for understanding the factors involved in value creation in rural tourism intermediation, which is applicable to further empirical studies and provides interesting managerial implications.

Destination marketing and/or management organisations (DMOs) must manage crises that affect the image of the tourism destination. The use of communication in these scenarios is crucial. Recent studies suggest that, following the Covid-19 crisis, demand for responsible tourism products should increase, leading to more sustainable tourism. This research examines the role of DMOs in responsible tourism during the current crisis to find out what their perception of destination positioning is and what changes, as a consequence of the impact of the crisis, have occurred in their marketing strategy on sustainable tourism.