Ecological tourism: pandemic lessons for Ukraine

Abstract

Our research was aimed to summarize the experts' first conclusions of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on ecotourism, specific recommendations for enhancing any tourist travel's environmental friendliness during the pandemic and the post-pandemic period, and to identify underdeveloped aspects of ecotourism transformation after the pandemic. The paper consists of an introduction, a review of the scientific literature that demonstrates that Ukrainian scientists have been actively researching ecotourism in the pre-pandemic period and continue this research nowadays; presentation of the methodology, information resources, and main results of the research; conclusions. The article's central part summarizes the experts' opinions of the pandemic's impact on ecotourism and the changes that should be expected in this sector after the pandemic. During the pandemic, ecotourism proved to be a "sustainable tourism." Although quarantine restrictions have influenced it heavily, there are prospects for its rapid revival soon. Special attention is also paid to the ecologization of all tourist travels. The post-pandemic tourist will attend to epidemiological safety, so the demand for ecotours and tours with high environmental friendliness will only increase. Ecotourism will also change, involving digital and other technologies. The conclusions and recommendations are given at the end of the paper.