Regional impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the tourist sector in the EU

The tourist sector is vital to the economy in many European regions and it one of the sectors mostly heavily affected by COVID-19, both in the short-term and in the medium to long-term. This study assessed how various types of tourist regions are affected by COVID-19 and what future developments in the tourism sector might bring for them. The study combined the territorial diversity and economic importance of the tourism sector (and its prospective) with the territorial diverse impacts of COVID19 and policy responses to the pandemic and recovery measures. There is also a time dimension to it, as the impacts of their territoriality differ between what we have seen during spring 2020 (lockdown phase), summer/winter 2020 (holiday season with travel restrictions) and what expect to see in the medium term (post 2022).

The study has been carried out by Spatial Foresight in cooperation with t33, NECSTouR and AnySolution.

Selected results are presented in a blog post.

Client: European Commission, DG REGIO

Duration: November 2020 - December 2021