Conclusion: Practical and Policy Perspectives in Reshaping the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Post-COVID-19 Industry

COVID-19 reshaped the tourism industry in many ways never thought of before. It created many threats and opportunities, and the recovery has not been a smooth sail. Rather, the recovery is fraught with challenges that the sector should navigate to emerge better and more resilient. This chapter summarises some emerging tourism trends triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. It further highlights that although the pandemic brought several challenges to the tourism industry, it created a more eager and attentive tourist to environmental and sustainability issues. As the recovery comes, the tourism sector should be responsive to the emerging expectations and demands of the tourism consumer post-COVID-19. Tourists expect, amongst other things, tourism to be more caring of the environment and socioeconomic wellbeing of the host communities and expect better tourism inclusivity. Given the challenges associated with the recovery, such as high inflation, high labour costs, high interest rates, labour shortages, pent-up demand, increased costs of extreme weather and climate change, there is a need for continued support to build a better and more resilient tourism future post-COVID-19. Central banks, governments and other funding urgencies have a critical role to play in this recovery process to finance the recovery process and programmes.