COVID-19 is an opportunity to reimagine tourism & make it more sustainable.

"A pandemic is the best time to evolve your business".

And I don't mean to be glib but in a world that has completely been disrupted, it makes more sense to go with the flow, evolve, adapt & see where the disruption could lead you ...rather than hold onto things with no success.

And one industry which has been totally disrupted is Tourism, for obvious reasons. But rather than looking at how tourism can go back to what it was. Isn't it time we reimagined how tourism can be?

And before thinking outside the box, perhaps focus better on the box-what was tourism like before Covid19.

Pre pandemic the biggest challenge with tourism was over-tourism. Venice was sinking with more cruise ships, Bali had become a net importer of rice & even Mount Everest had tonnes & tonnes of rubbish.

We all talk about sustainability but difficult to do anything when thousands of people are converging on one location & people's livelihoods are dependent on it.

So the question is there a way to revive tourism? , while solving:

1.new problems: i.e. Covid-19

2.old problems: making tourism sustainable while sustaining the local economy.

So while Covid 19 has been disruptive it can also be an opportunity...to reimagine. And as mentioned before let's start from the box.

The way we defined the tourist economy is someone visiting one city for a few days or a week. The problem with that is that it's extremely transactional & the entire talk of sustainability often goes out of the window when someone barely has enough time to enjoy a place,let alone get attached to it.

So post Covid19- when the work environment has been disrupted & tech startups are rapidly on the growth curve can tourism be more? Yes & the governments can play a big role in it.

1. Move majority of the international & even domestic tourism to the Bhutanese model: The Bhutanese call it “High Value, Low Impact ” or the policy of attracting discerning tourists. This basically means they charge a few numbers of people a good amount of money. This allows them to sustain the tourist economy for the long term.

The idea is not for other countries to forcefully raise their price but in popular destinations put a stop to growing the tourist infrastructure further-hotels, restaurants, homestays etc. Stagnate the supply side of the tourist infrastructure because as long as we keep cutting down mountains and trees to build new hotels and restaurants, this problem will never end.

2. Make the tourist part of the local economy a.k.a digital nomads: This is a huge opportunity. But it also means an opportunity to redefine a digital nomad. Why is a digital nomad someone who is a freelancer living one entire year or more in a foreign country? Why can't it also include people in regular jobs who move to a city for 3 or so months & live and work remotely from there. A lot of us did that during Covid & the world didn't collapse. So why can't this be a regular part of the job. But to do that countries will need to change rules-legalize digital nomads.Give them both 3 month & multi-year visa. (ps- And for families with kids,your kids spent more than a year and half studying remotely. Imagine them spending 3-6 months absorbing a different culture & meeting new people while attending class online)

Bali Indonesia,?Georgia, Romania,Estonia, Argentina etc these countries are already in the process of introducing these visas or already have them. This if done right will lead to sustainable?#tourism .

Because suddenly you will have foreigners who don't come and leave immediately but stay on..are part of the local economy. They form an attachment to the place and culture and are concerned of the quality of life since they are living there

Read this: https://investmentmonitor.ai/analysis/rise-digital-nomads-impact-investors & these countries offer a digital nomad visa: https://www.letsdeel.com/blog/remote-work-visas

3. Build a new economy by welcoming high growth tech startups:?The Startup economy is rapidly growing & startup founders and startup economy is not just about a few people becoming very rich..but it helps create jobs, give money via taxes, pours money into local economy, upskills the local education ecosystem etc. Till now this was constrained to areas within a country where people from that country moved to. So for Americans (& the world) it was California, in India it was Bangalore, Berlin,London or Madrid in Europe etc (just a few examples). But if more countries start incentivizing aspiring tech entrepreneurs to move their business to their country it can change things rapidly.

Founders can move to counties which provide a higher quality of life at a lower cost (bootstrapping isn't easy) & where good talent & internet infrastructure is available. And its usually not just one individual moving but a lot of other colleagues & their families moving too.#estonia ?,?#lithuania ?,?#dubai ?,?#singapore ,?#canada ?all have or have recently launched startup visa programs (among other countries). A startup just doesn't build the local?#economy ?by providing jobs but also tech startups they become brand ambassadors for the country.

The future could lie in the?Airbnb ?route- make your home anywhere.From their end government needs to start providing these visa opportunities while making it easier to set up and do business there.

Unfortunately most of the developing economies aren't doing this.They could be ideal for bootstrapping entrepreneurs but it's the developed world which has started these programs ,not usually the countries which could benefit more.

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Beyond all this the governments can also introduce retirement visas & open parts of country for the regular tourist.

The question which anyone reading this would have? How can this replace the lakhs of tourists.

Answer: It can't & more importantly it shouldn't.

I hope the last 2 years have made us respect nature & the world around us more.

And you can't build a sustainable world if we keep cutting down mountains, trees and draining lakes to make more accommodation for tourists. We need better ways-alternate ways to sustain and grow the local economy..let's start by redefining the tourist.

ps-the above picture is of Halstatt. ' Hallstatt’s mayor, Alexander Scheutz, reportedly urged tourists to stay away from the alpine village.“Hallstatt is an important piece of cultural history, not a museum . We want to reduce numbers by at least a third but we have no way of actually stopping them,” the mayor was quoted by People as saying.

pics from Photo by Patrick Stadler , Peggy Anke Austin Distel on Unsplash

I plan to write more about life & logistics as a digital nomad from India via the newsletter https://subscribe.altstrategy.online/prelaunch