“…In this regard, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the tourism industry has been particularly harsh (Sigala, 2020; Perles-Ribes et al ., 2023), with many workers in the undeclared economy unable to access the financial supports provided by the governments to tourism (Williams, 2021). The consequent massive outflow of workers from the tourism sector during the COVID-19 standstill period (Han et al ., 2022), along with the “Great Resignation” phenomenon, a longer-term trend that particularly affected restaurants, bars and hotels (Ravenelle and Kowalski, 2023), did not only produce bottlenecks and unmatched vacancies, but it also caused a sudden loss of human capital, whose disruptive effects has subsequently emerged at the time of the recovery (Colmekcioglu et al ., 2022). Overall, this pattern emphasized that industry human capital is a crucial factor for the post-pandemic recovery of the tourism sector, and calls for new training and motivational requirements for those seasonal workers who will enter the tourism labour market in the next future.…”