ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social consequences created by the current pandemic situation are significant social events in the 21st century. The coronavirus outbreak has unleashed social anxiety, threats and risks impacting almost every sector in the world, including the tourism sector. Here, it becomes significant to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local communities through risk analysis. The current study attempts to understand the coronavirus pandemic through the concept of a ‘risk society’ given by Ulrich Beck. This chapter first attempts to draw the connections between risk society and the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of tourism. The study identifies the types of risks created by the COVID-19 pandemic in the tourism industry and its impact on different sections of society that are dependent on the tourism sector. The study analyses how people, based on their diverse backgrounds and occupational categories, are located at different risk positions in the tourism sector, which determines their ability to avert risks. The study is empirical and employs qualitative data from fieldwork collected from the famous hill station of India, ‘Mussoorie’, which is popularly known as Queen of Hills in India. The chapter concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic has created risks that have intensified class, caste and gender differences in society in India, thereby impacting the lives of vulnerable sections of the population.
