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Examines tourism policy implementation in Chinese tourism enterprises. In general, all tourism enterprises indicated that economic‐oriented tourism policies implemented promoted the development of tourism in China since the adoption of economic reform and open‐door policy in 1978. Chinese tourism policies have established a legal framework for the administration, management and operation of tourism enterprises. This framework has covered almost all aspects of tourism industry. However, Chinese tourism enterprises also found difficulties in implementing some policies and regulations. Some regulations are too strict and do not allow the tourism enterprises to implement in accordance with their real circumstance. The study also suggests that tourism policy implementation in China has two different patterns in two different kinds of tourism enterprises. Further argues that tourism policy implementation in China is a “top‐down” and “trial and error‐correcting” model. These findings provide the important implications in studying the political dimensions of tourism, including tourism politics and tourism policy‐making process, particularly in the context of socialist countries.

Unavoidable politicisation of tourism Conservatives usually regret the fact that more and more areas of our daily lives are subject to political interference. It would be easy to share their concern in the field of tourism, which is one of the few remaining activities in modern society in which individual freedom can still be exercised.

As the world continues to navigate between the “new normal” and the “next normal” of an ongoing pandemic, recovery plans of several tourism destinations are still not bringing desired results. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long standing structural weaknesses and gaps in tourism policies worldwide. The formulation of tourism policies based on the pandemic context is therefore a need of the hour. However, due to lock-down and physical distancing measures, data collection for the development of research-based tourism policies has not been possible. In this case, evidence-based policies stand as a workable option. Drawing from the book Tourism Destination Management in a Post-Pandemic Context, this policy document proposes a synthesis of tourism policies embraced by destinations struggling in the pandemic context. Lessons show that rebuilding tourism requires policies that address structural weaknesses, advance key priorities, foster global solidarity and take advantage of new opportunities. This piece of study comes to the conclusion that tourism policies post pandemic need to be based on seven pillars, namely mitigation, vaccination, collaboration, information, promotion, education and investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the incorporation, prioritization and depth of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in tourism industry restart policies of Canadian provinces and territories. This study investigates how the detailing of EDI in policies determine the priority in emancipating tourism workers from the inequities exacerbated during the pandemic. Such investigation enables a better understanding of the complexities, tendencies and rationale of involving EDI in the tourism industry’s recovery.

The research investigated the presence and prioritization of equity, diversity, and inclusion using systematic text analytics of 38 publicly available restart plans and statements from 52 government and non-government agencies. Using web-based software Voyant Tools to assist in text analytics, a hybrid deductive-inductive coding approach was conducted.

Key outcomes from the analysis revealed scarce to no full and dedicated content on EDI as a holistic initiative necessary for tourism industry relaunch. This lack of EDI content was a result of the greater impetus to prioritize economic generation and limited data due to practical and ideological issues. Results also suggested the tokenizing of EDI in some policies.

Difficulties in data used for research include the lack and availability of restart policies specifically for tourism; most policies were generalized and referred to economic recovery as a whole. Studies of tourism-specific EDI issues were also limited.

The research is revelatory for investigating EDI prioritizations in restart policies even among well-developed and worker-diverse tourism industries such as in Canada, where inequities and injustices to women, Black, Indigenous, gender-diverse, and newcomer tourism workers among others have been withstanding.

It is essential to understand how the countries with the highest number of tourist arrivals have managed to recover or not based on the competitiveness of the tourism industry during the pandemic stage. It is necessary to evaluate the policies implemented by each government to maintain the competitive performance of their industries. This chapter proposes a comprehensive review of the policies implemented in the 10 most visited countries according to UNWTO data. Most of these policies are geared toward economic and financial flexibility strategies for companies and individuals in the industry under study. The effectiveness of these policies is evaluated with statistical information extracted from a unified UNWTO database to reduce biases in the effectiveness analysis. Finally, concluding remarks are offered on the effectiveness of the policies and their contribution to the sector's recovery.

This chapter outlines the major findings of a survey on the rationale of the European Union actions for supporting tourism development and whether these undertakings can lead to a distinctive tourism policymaking. According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union documentation, the most important instrument for the implementation of policy is based on tourism-related separate actions analysis, in a way that would enable one to compare the policies at the national and international level. This study suggests that tourism becomes a field whose issues and actions are taken at the regional level. This calls for creating the necessary conditions for the development of the tourism product at the European Union level. Until now, European Union practices do not portend the formation of a distinctive policy in the tourism industry.

Tourism, a critical economic sector for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), is extremely vulnerable to climate change. It has been becoming increasingly evident that strategic planning is essential for the sector to manage future impacts of climate change. This study examines the climate change considerations in the tourism sector of The Bahamas with a specific focus on adaptation policies by exploring the perspectives of key actors. Facing similar climate vulnerabilities as many other SIDS, The Bahamas was chosen because it is a mature tourism destination that provides an avenue for existing policy innovations. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight policy actors from the government, tourism associations, and nongovernmental organizations in the country. The findings revealed that these stakeholders have a good knowledge of climate change. However, planning for tourism and climate change is fragmented, with most climate policies formulated with the scope of mitigation, such as greenhouse gas reduction strategies. In addition, the policy implementation faces many gaps common to SIDS, such as funding and human capacity. At present, the strategic planning for future tourism targets sustainable eco-tourism markets. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations such as leveraging public officials' knowledge of climate change, steering locally relevant adaptation measures, and directing immediate attention toward projects in the pipeline to ensure timely, long-term, and effective planning. The study adds to the current knowledge of climate change in the tourism policy context for The Bahamas with implications for other SIDS.

Despite being endowed with rich culture and beautiful historic monuments, tourism performance in India has been low. The aim of the paper is to focus specifically on the role of key institutions, i.e., the Central (Federal) and State governments that drive tourism policy development and implementation in India. As tourism policy development and implementation in India has not been well documented and understood, this paper provides an analysis of these institutions. These institutes are critical due to their role in policy making, budget allocation and project implementation in the tourism domain. This paper also helps in highlighting the key factors behind low international tourist arrivals in India.

This study investigated the micro–macro link in the hospitality and tourism (H&T) sector, specifically considering whether the gender diversity, independence and board attendance rates of H&T firms' boards, alongside the moderation effect of board policies, played a significant role in tourism sector performance.

The 2011–2018 data were retrieved from the World Bank and the Thomson Reuters Eikon databases, and fixed effects panel regression was conducted.

While female directors were a significant driver of tourism sector performance in terms of tourist arrivals and tourism receipts, independent directors were effective in improving tourist arrivals only. Furthermore, moderation analyses demonstrated the inefficacy of board policies in enhancing these directors' contributions to the sector's development. Moreover, the findings revealed the inefficiency of board meetings.

Concerning the efficacy of board policies, the results suggest that firms' boards should review and revise their policies. Surprisingly, while board-diversity policies made no difference to female directors' role in the sector's development (although females were influential), board-independence policies produced unexpected results. In the absence of a board-independence policy, independent directors are influential, but if a policy exists, they are not.

Although prior firm-level studies tested whether board characteristics enhanced firms' performance in the H&T sector, they did not investigate whether board characteristics promoted tourism sector performance. Moreover, the moderating effect of board policies on boards' structures and tourism sector performance has not yet been examined.