THE DEBATE ABOUT TOURISM AND ITS SUSTAINABILITY IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several academics considered that the crisis could be a turning point in the tourism development model and an opportunity for tourism to become more sustainable in the future. It is unclear, however, whether this perception has spread beyond academia and how the pandemic changed the ideology of tourism in society. This article investigates whether the pandemic has boosted and influenced the debate in the European public sphere about the sustainability of tourism. Accordingly, a comparative content analysis of tourism-related newspaper pieces published in five newspapers of different countries during 2020 was carried out. The findings indicate that the pandemic sparked public debate about the future of tourism. However, the sustainability of tourism was not the primary concern in most of the newspapers analysed. Instead, the public sphere seemed more concerned with the pandemic's negative effects on tourism, emphasising the importance of tourism for destinations. In the various newspapers different approaches to tourism were found, suggesting that multiple sensitivities towards the issue of sustainability in tourism coexist in the European public sphere.