ABSTRACT
Today, we live in interesting times; they are times of change and uncertainty, but they are also the most optimistic and exciting times in the recent history of travel and tourism. It is a time when worldwide tourism is faced with difficult challenges that will impact on the future for international growth in travel. The industry has been particularly confronted with a major crisis due to the impact of COVID-19 and other strains of the virus. It is noted that the global tourism industry must come together to work toward solutions to such pandemics now and into the future. The issues related to health pandemics is one of the important concerns for the future growth of the travel and tourism industry. There are many more issues and policies that have an impact on future trends in global tourism. Such critical issues that need the immediate attention of the global tourism community include understanding the impact of transportation disruptions, climate change and global warming, traveller’s safety and security, global cooperation with respect to traveler barriers to travel, a well-educated and trained workforce, approaches to meeting natural and human-induced disasters, the introduction of new technology and dynamic plans for the overall management of sustainable tourism. The opportunity for positive future trends in global tourism will ultimately depend on international organisations, businesses, government, academia, not-for-profit entities, and local tourism leaders all working together to develop policies and plans to address the important current and future tourism issues that face the travel and tourism industry.
