TOURISM AND MEETING INDUSTRY AFTER LOCKDOWN Juliusz Kłosowski and Witold Żygulski talk with Andrzej Gut-Mostowy, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Development, responsible for the tourism sector.
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ow do you assess the scale of today’s crisis for the tourism industry, especially the meetings industry, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Certainly, tourism in its broadest sense has suffered great damage, in terms of turnover and profitability. However, the tourism industry has different faces. Starting from sightseeing tourism, through camping, to hotel facilities. As for the latter, the scale of regression is quite different in small towns, where one comes for the sake of nature, and in metropolitan centers, such as Warsaw, Cracow, Gdansk
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or Wroclaw. According to statistical data, the proximity of nature and the lack of crowds are extremely desirable conditions that make it easier to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. A very good result - even better than in previous years - was recorded by campsites in the first half of the year, but hotel occupancy rates are now single-digit percentage in large cities. It therefore makes no sense to draw statistical averages for the tourism crisis because it is difficult to judge. Tourism is changing its preferences, and all sectors are facing new challenges. The meetings industry is indeed one of the most affected by crisis economic areas. This is due not only to the lockdown restrictions, but also to changes in consumer preferences caused by the pandemic. Even when administrative regulations allow for larger conferences, there is still no general will to participate in such events. Consequently, no one risks investing money in such activities. However, in this respect, I am a moderate optimist. Every restriction causes a reaction in the human psyche, causes a desire to react. When at some point the administrative and psychological barriers disappear, it will turn out that the meetings industry will return to its activity, because people will want to meet, that is our nature. The only question is how quickly such a situation will happen. At a recent world conference of ministers of tourism one of the recognized experts said that the appearance of the coronavirus vaccine will bring the tourism industry quickly back on the path of turnover growth. There will be a rebound - people who have met for years, indifferently, whether socially or in conference, they will start again regularly to meet. The Warsaw Voice
