COVID-19 impact on tourism: case of Polish hotels

COVID-19 pandemic started just three months after SPOT project kick-off meeting. Pandemic outbreak triggered a major global crisis affecting various human activities, including travel and tourism. It also influenced SPOT project as already planned mobilities of students and researchers had to be postponed or even cancelled. As thus, our first focus was on delivering analysis of evidenced and expected impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism. Hotels are recognized as a core element of tourism infrastructure. In consequence, hotels are of particular interest of destination management organizations and institutions responsible for spatial planning. This was a reason we decided to consider the situation of hotel industry during pandemic times. Urban hotel markets in Poland were our case.

Negative COVID-19 impact on Polish urban hotel markets were more significant in less internationalized and less populated destinations. Thus, in the short-term perspective, the recovery of hotel industry would be much easier, reflecting only an epidemic in the national context. Hotels located in destinations targeting domestic tourism mainly are less influenced by international crises. On the contrary, recovery of the investigated industry in more internationalized and more populated destinations will be much more complicated and affected by health strategies applied not only in Poland but, also, in tourist-generating countries. Thus, the geographical segmentation of hotel markets as well as increase of sustainable approach in general should become the focus of hotel managers but also destination management organizations.

To find more details of our research, do not hesitate to read our paper entitled: Impact of Geographic Distribution of COVID-19 Cases on Hotels’ Performances: Case of Polish Cities.