Opinion column of Marilú Mansilla, Technical Assistant Projects, Eurochile

During the first semester of 2020, human life has been strongly affected in its different areas by the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid – 19). In the economic sphere, the Tourism has been one of the hardest hit sectors, and companies in the sector are threatened with their existence by the almost total drop in their income, given the cancellation of reservations and the fall in tourism, both nationally and internationally. This health crisis shows us that Tourism in the future will no longer be the same, that the market has changed, and that the needs and demands of tourists have changed.

It is estimated that a third of the world population has been or is in some stage of confinement due to the virus, a population that, despite the economic recession or fear, will want to go out and breath new airs, regain energy or, at least , go out for a weekend outside the place where they have been confined for so long. In this sense, this is a great opportunity to develop domestic tourism, nearby destinations, for proximity tourism and to boost the local economy, since tourists will prefer places close to their home and will want to avoid large crowds.

To do this, companies must take new sanitary measures. As mentioned before, the market  has changed, accommodations and restaurants should seek ways to guarantee the safety and health of their venues, private transport and tourism providers that have emergency plans and protocols duly implemented will be preferred. Airlines must take extra sanitation measures. Given these changes in the market, Chilean SMEs will need support to implement and internalize these new measures or ways of working in their business models, which they must modify and adapt. In addition, incorporating a very strong digital component.

Due to this situation, Europe is a season ahead and has been managing the Covid-19 crisis for a longer time and preparing to mitigate its impact. The fact that they are already preparing for the revival of tourism in the European summer (July – August) is a great opportunity to observe, adapt and implement protocols, plans, initiatives and measures in Chile that contribute to the reactivation of the tourism sector. In this sense, the networks that the Eurochile Business Foundation has and its 28 years of experience make it a key actor in the work to resume the path of development of the tourism sector in the country.

This is not the first worldwide crisis that the tourism industry has suffered in this century; the crisis of 2008 hit the industry hard, but tourism reemerged as one of the industries with exponential growth. Eurochile already on that date played an active role of support and contribution in improving the sector’s competitiveness and productivity, carrying out projects as important as the implementation of the “Destination Management Model”, acting as a bridge between Europe and Chile, transferring knowledge , good practices, innovations, trends, etc. in pursuit of constant support for the tourism industry.

We have a lot of work ahead and the reactivation of tourism will be slow and under new sanitary measures, under contexts of social distancing, and a tourist with less economic capacity. It is the new tourism, which suddenly hit an industry that must constantly reinvent itself to be able to charm tourists, but which now above all must provide security.