Introduction

It can be argued quite convincingly that cities as tourism destinations have been neglected by scholars in comparison to rural and resort areas. This is perhaps not that surprising since academic researchers have focused mainly on holiday, vacation and leisure travellers. They have regarded cities more as a source of tourists, rather than themselves being tourism destinations. On the business tourism side, GainingEdge, a consulting company based in Melbourne, Australia, has developed a city-based Competitive Index with respect to international conventions. The International Journal of Tourism Cities at the end of 2016 asked selected members of its editorial board to write about urban tourism issues, trends and challenges. The coronavirus outbreak in China caused the curtailing of travel within China and the closure of several cities including Wuhan, and as the pandemic spread to other parts of the world, the tourism sector was devastated.