COVID-19 AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES: THE IMPACTOUR PILOTS COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Purpose - The quest for sustainable cultural tourism is undoubtedly connected with local communities. This paper presents the approaches taken by IMPACTOUR Project Pilots Community members to overcome COVID- 19 issues. Methodology - A conceptual framework for this research is applied. The data gathering for this paper followed a methodology based on surveys, webinars and workshops, inside the IMPACTOUR project pilots. Findings - A common belief is that digital is the key to sustainable Cultural Tourism. Different solutions were reported, such as digitalization of museums content, digital campaigns towards tourists, more and easily understandable digital information, digital events, or digital marketing. Several destinations suffered a considerable reduction in international mass tourism, but an increase of local and cross-border tourism was found as the new normal. Also, the proposed Sustainability-Green-Digital triangle could be the key to unlock hidden treasures and move towards new and more sustainable Cultural Tourism business models. Contribution -Based on our research, the results of this paper are applicable as a resilient strategy for Cultural Tourism Communities. The findings are a new approach, the sustainability-greendigital triangle, which can be seen as an instrument for decision and policymakers to boost their strategies and find best practices for any future unpredictable situation.