Consumer Travel Behavior During The Pandemic. A Romanian Case Study

Starting with the emergence of the new COVID-19 virus, tourism was among the sectors most affected by the pandemic. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2021) announced a 65% reduction in the number of international arrivals in the first half of 2020 and 97% less in the second half, which means losses of 460 billion euros for the travel industry worldwide. The aim of this research is to present the Romanian consumer behavior after COVID -19 pandemic by using an online questionnaire on 680 of respondents and to analyze, in the European and international context the main changes on Romanian tourism industry. For the statistical analysis of the main changes of the Romanian tourism indicators the secondary data respectively the statistical data was used, both from national statistical data and international sources. For the research regarding the analysis of changes of the Romanian consumer for tourism packages, primary data from 680 respondents was collected by online questionnaire by using a convenience sampling. Following the results of research based on secondary data by using the statistical indicators, we made an extensive analysis in terms of how much the tourism sector was affected by the pandemic, for example at the global level, the revenues generated by this important sector of the economy decreased by 51.4%, in 2020, the number of jobs in tourism decreased by 9.3%, i.e. 3.6 million people out of the 38.5 million reported in 2019 as workers in the tourism sector, were left without a place to work or have changed their field of activity. Romania is no exception, the number of foreign tourist arrivals decreased considerably in 2020, compared to 2019, approximately 35% of Romanians had to cancel their holiday booking due to travel restrictions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made Romanians' tourist options oriented towards the domestic market.