Crisis management, destination recovery and sustainability: Tourism at a crossroads

The COVID-19 pandemic brought travel to a halt and the global tourism industry has been one of the sectors hit hardest during the pandemic. This book looks at how the tourism industry can enhance its resilience and prepare for future crises more effectively. The book provides insights into the economic, social, geopolitical and environmental implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality industries and the responses in diverse international contexts. It highlights key concepts and includes cases with real-life applications. The book also discusses future research directions in a post-pandemic scenario. This book will be an invaluable resource for practitioners in the areas of tourism and crisis management and for readers to compare and contrast tourism destination recovery and crisis management practices through different research methodologies and settings. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, James Kennell, Priyakrushna Mohanty, Anukrati Sharma and Azizul Hassan. All rights reserved.

Mega-Events Tourism and Sustainability: A Critique

Event tourism has emerged as one of the most influential and rapidly growing forms of international tourism in the face of its recent history. Considered as an intersection of event management and tourism management, event tourism has been applauded for influencing both tourism demand and supply. However, in the recent past, the concept of event tourism has seen its fair share of criticisms especially with regard to mega-events. While some of the scholars have criticized it for not addressing “difficult” questions like fiscal reforms, global power structures, injustice, inequality, and environmental degradation, others have accused it of providing shelter to crony capitalism. Issues like gender parity or equality remain big question marks in the study of event tourism. Furthermore, the recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has exhibited the high vulnerability aspect of mega-events in general. It is argued that event tourism must be examined through the lens of critical inquiry for it to move forward while addressing its gray areas. Hence, attempts have been made in this current study to trace out the dark sides of event tourism which can challenge its sustainability. The work is based on a systematic desk-based review of secondary data. Thematic content analysis has been employed to analyze the data collected. The chapter concludes that despite its rising popularity, event tourism has many critical features and weak links that need to be addressed to ensure its sustainability. © 2022 by Apple Academic Press, Inc.

Events Tourism in the Eye of the COVID-19 Storm: Impacts and Implications

Events are considered to be integral parts of global tourism and currently they are experiencing massive turmoil in the form of cancellations or postponements thanks to the recent outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which has been declared as a pandemic of the 20th century. Despite its multifaceted nature, the implications of COVID-19 on various events have been understudied thanks to the novelty of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This paper undertakes a systematic review of scientific literature to discuss the recent developments in various global events amidst COVID-19 and the implications of the disease on event management. © 2022 by Apple Academic Press, Inc.

Image Encryption Using RSA Algorithm

In the current covid pandemic situation, secure online transmission of data has the highest precedence over other activities. For providing computational hardness that is for making tough to break the key for finding the unique message, there are various algorithms are present. For secure data transmission, many researchers have applied different cryptography algorithms and in order to improve the level of information security, different hybrid cryptography algorithms have been proposed. In cryptography algorithm implementation, key management plays a major role. For this reason, we have applied an image encryption technique in which a random image is considered as the key. Using the random image as a key, we have encrypted another image as information using the RSA algorithm. The comparison of the proposed method is done with the traditional approach and concluded that the cryptography algorithm implemented using an image as key provides more security in terms of encryption and decryption time. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Economic impact of COVID-19-induced lockdown on rural households

Through a series of data visualisations, the article attempts to illustrate the economic repercussions of the COVID-19-induced lockdown of 2020 on rural households. It focuses on how consumption, labour and income, healthcare, access to relief programmes and migration were effected by the lockdown in six major states.

Households’ responses on medical pluralism: Dynamics and determinants of access to traditional medicines in India

The Indian healthcare practice is pluralistic and unique since it is poised with many challenges. High out of pocket (OOPE) expenditure, scanty institutional facilities, and expensive private healthcare, etc. have strong bearing on adoption of traditional health care practices besides socio-cultural and other gradients. The paper addresses the dynamics and determinants of the access to traditional medicines in India using the representative dataset of the national sample survey (71st and 75th round) conducted in 2014 and 2017–2018. The analysis includes descriptive statistics, conditional Logit regression with marginal effects and Tobit regressions models. Results confirm increased access to traditional medicines even in case of major ailments which has reduced the OOPE on healthcare. The Covid19 pandemic has synergised the use of AYUSH owing to its immunity-boosting measures. The paper also incorporates some of the recent policy initiatives taken over recently in India to facilitate the Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Sowa Rigpa, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the valuation of Indian companies using a financial model

Purpose Fear grips stock markets when a pandemic like COVID-19 strikes, severely affecting stock prices. However, fundamental value drivers of companies do not change drastically during pandemics. The sensitivity of firms' cash flows to lockdowns during pandemics depends on their cost structure. This paper develops a financial model incorporating information about value drivers and lockdown sensitivity of companies to find the enterprise value. Design/methodology/approach The authors develop a financial model that estimates the effects of COVID-19 on enterprise value and helps to identify wrongly valued stocks. The authors apply the model to five Indian stocks from five different industries to study how firms belonging to various sectors get affected differently in this pandemic. Findings Companies belonging to civil aviation and retail sectors get more affected by COVID-19 compared to those in movie exhibition, automobile and hotel industries. The cost structure of the latter category of firms reduces their cash flow effect. Practical implications The model can be used by practitioners to understand any pandemic's effect on stock prices. Also, it explains how firms having different cost structures get affected by any crisis and help investors in taking appropriate buy/sell decisions. Originality/value The study has two contributions: first, the authors develop a financial model to estimate the effect of COVID-19 on the enterprise value. Second, contrary to popular perception, the authors find companies belonging to movie exhibition, hotel and automobile industries do not get that severely affected.

Positioning spice tourism as an emerging form of special interest tourism: perspectives and strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic has halted activities in the global tourism industry, and the situation has only been worsened by the general air of uncertainty and lack of effective vaccinations. Consequently, people have begun testing various remedies to enhance their immunity, primarily turning to traditional medical practices and home remedies. The medicinal use of spices, given their immune-boosting properties, is increasingly popular globally and has enhanced global awareness of spices and their products. In light of this surging popularity, this study examines spice tourism as a concept of niche tourism. This study proposes spice tourism as a valuable post-COVID-19 strategy by providing four different approaches to position spice tourism within special interest tourism. This paper also suggests a tourism development plan for spice tourism and proposes a strategy for its resilience post-COVID-19. © 2021, The Author(s).

Augmented reality for relaunching tourism post-COVID-19: socially distant, virtually connected

Purpose: This paper aims to understand the various facets of augmented reality (AR) and to explore its prospects for supporting the relaunch of the tourism sector post-COVID-19 in accordance with the guidelines set out by WHO and UNWTO. Design/methodology/approach: This study falls into the category of exploratory research. It is based on a systematic review of secondary data. Thematic content analysis has been adopted to trace out the various ways in which AR can be an aid in overcoming challenges in the relaunch of tourism after the pandemic. Findings: It was found that norms such as social distancing and lower mobility are going to be followed even after the COVID-19. Therefore, there will be a great demand for mobile and Web-based AR to not only ensure tourist safety but also to create unique, accessible, personalized, context-specific, deep and memorable experiences. Practical implications: Apart from its academic contribution to the existing body of knowledge, this work can assist various tourism DMOs and policymakers to devise futuristic policies for AR-driven tourism management and development. Originality/value: The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and never seen before. In this context, this study establishes its novelty by exclusively focusing on the aspects of AR that can support the relaunch of tourism post-pandemic. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.