The COVID-19 crisis: opportunities for sustainable and proximity tourism. (Special Issue: Visions of travel and tourism after the global COVID-19 transformation of 2020.)

In light of the health crisis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic a large number of questions are being raised about its impact, in the near and long term, on the tourism sector. There are likely to be socioeconomic changes that will have a very significant impact on tourism as we have come to know it: changes in mobility, socialization and consumption patterns, our leisure and work, and many other dimensions of our social lives. Based on the evidence we have and on recent trends in the tourism sector up until now, this paper reflects on the implications that this crisis may have for the sustainability of the sector and the challenges it faces.