The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly and tangibly affected tourism industries across the globe due to the travel restrictions as well as slump in demand among travellers. The paralysation of tourism industries has most notably impacted economies that are largely dependent on tourism, such as the Italian and Albanian ones.

In a recent article published on albanianews.it, Professor Valentina Ndou of the University of Salento, coordinator of the NEST Project, suggested some tips to make the most of the Covid-19 crisis and rethink the tourism sector.

Professor Ndou emphasised how notwithstanding tourism was hit by health, economic and terrorist crises, it has always recovered. Even during the Covid-19 outbreak, studies confirm that people still make plans of returning to travel as soon as restriction measures will be lifted. This is the case of the Travel Sentiment Tracking Survey conducted in the US in late March, whose findings are that 66% of respondents were looking forward to returning to travel.

According to Professor Ndou, the road to the sector recovery implies first and foremost to improve managerial, organisational and technological skills of companies and their staff, to modulate the offer considering the potential increase of domestic tourism, to improve communication and marketing as to include client-centred campaigns and health-sensitive customer care and, last but not least, to examine the demand and understand what tourists will want in the future.

The NEST project is committed to stimulating such changes through the diffusion of knowledge, networking and cooperation, which are key enabling factors of a smarter and more sustainable tourism across the Italy-Albania-Montenegro cooperation area.