TOURISM DURING COVID-19 - SEASONALITY IS AN OPPORTUNITY OR STILL A THREAT?

Abstract

The global economy and society have never faced the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the sectors most affected by the pandemic was tourism. As a result of the administrative lockdown and the ban on flights, virtually all tourist destinations in the world were unavailable for some time, and domestic tourism was very limited. Tourism was hit hardest by the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the release of tourism in the tourist season caused seasonal tourism to lose the least in the tourism sector.m jest pandemia COVID-19. The aim of this article is to try to answer the following questions: does the high seasonality of tourism demand reduce the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for seasonal businesses, and if so, when is the number of visitors expected to return to the pre-pandemic level. In order to solve this research problem, an analysis of the trends in changes in the number of tourists and the number of overnight stays in the Baltic coastal region, i.e. in the region with the highest seasonal fluctuations, was performed.