The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on revenues of visitor attractions: An exploratory and preliminary study in China

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has made a detrimental impact on various tourism subsectors. The financial consequences of this impact should be carefully evaluated to set benchmarks for industry recovery. This study assessed the financial impact of the pandemic on the tourism subsector of visitor attractions in China; 4222 A-grade visitor attractions accounting for over one-third of the national market were surveyed. Data triangulation was subsequently applied to undertake a comprehensive assessment of potential revenue loss. Triangulation was based upon the (1) lost revenue estimates made by tourist attractions’ administrations, (2) reverse estimation of past macroeconomic data, and (3) expert opinion estimates. The assessment results demonstrated that A-grade visitor attractions in China may have lost up to 140 billion RMB (circa US$21 billion) due to COVID-19, with up to 65% of all losses incurred in the first quarter of 2020. The scale of revenue loss varied significantly depending on visitor attraction’s grade, type, and location. Potential strategies for industry recovery are discussed.

Assessing the Combined Effects of Transportation Infrastructure on Regional Tourism Development in China Using a Spatial Econometric Model (GWPR)

“…Tourism resource endowment (attractiveness): The attractiveness of tourism resources influences whether or not tourists visit a destination [60]. The number of A-grade visitor attractions reflects, to some extent, each province's ability to develop local tourism resources [63][64][65]. Therefore, the number of A-grade visitor attractions is used to refer to the tourism resource endowment.…”

Metaverse in the urban destinations in China: some insights for the tourism players

“…Despite China’s remarkable achievements in urban tourism over the past four decades (Bao, Li, & Liang, 2020), the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the global tourism industry, with China being no exception. The number of tourists and revenue generated by the tourism industry have both been significantly threatened, and tourist behavior has changed as a result (Im, Lam, & Ma, 2021; Wang, Tian, Filimonau, Ning, & Yang, 2022). As a result, the recovery of urban tourism has become an urgent issue (Anguera-Torrell, Vives-Perez, & Pedro Aznar-Alarcon, 2021).…”

“…In tourism activities, the metaverse enables tourists to have an immersive experience and interact with the metaverse-escape (Gursoy et al, 2022). Furthermore, a 360° virtual tour has been shown to contribute to reducing the psychological stress caused by COVID-19 (Wang et al, 2022). Given the benefits and potential of the metaverse, many cities all over the world have developed metaverse tourism strategies.…”

Impact of Urbanization on Eco-Efficiency of Tourism Destinations

“…In addition, tourism destinations are a cluster of products and services, activities and experiences on the tourism value chain, which is a physical space and a fundamental unit of tourism analysis [6]. In the post-pandemic era, tourism destinations are entering a period of urgent economic growth [7]. The number of Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival holiday in 2023 was 308 million, a year-on-year increase of 23.1% [8].…”