Post-pandemic tourism strategies: A case of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Tourism has always been a vulnerable industry. Minimal disturbances can halt or even destroy tourism and its associated economy. There is no dearth of research on vulnerability and resilience of the tourism industry for various tourism destinations,, and on post-disaster studies, but mainly these were limited to a city or tourist destination and focused on the destination image recovery. The primary purpose of this study is to identify different tourism stages and the local community’s issues and desires associated with each stage and to propose strategies that can be used during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The district-wise monthly domestic and foreign tourist arrival data from 2008 to 2018 for Himachal Pradesh (HP) were observed. The observations reveal that HP experiences overtourism, balanced tourism, and undertourism. Two hundred seven telephonic interviews were conducted with different stakeholders such as tourism department officers, urban planners, hotel owners and managers, environmentalists, and state residents. Research themes were identified based on the interview responses, and these themes were further validated using a review of newspaper reports and court and local administration order. This study identified nine broad problems and patterns associated with tourism and proposes 17 sustainable tourism strategies that the post-COVID-19 crisis can follow. The proposed strategies give special attention to confidence-building of tourist and residents, image building of the location, and increasing tourism number sustainably and tourism earning of the state. This study investigates problems and suggests sustainable strategies for a state in India for the first time and may be used for policy decision and regional sustainable tourism development plan.