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Urban tourism performance index over the COVID-19 pandemic

Oriol Anguera-Torrell (Barcelona School of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy CETT, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain)
Jordi Vives-Perez (Barcelona School of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy CETT, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain and at the Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain)
Juan Pedro Aznar-Alarcón (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain)

International Journal of Tourism Cities

ISSN: 2056-5607

Article publication date: 12 February 2021

Issue publication date: 15 October 2021

3660

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to propose and estimate the urban tourism performance index (UTPI), an index that can measure and track the month-by-month tourism performance on main tourism cities since the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UTPI is estimated for the following urban destinations: Bangkok, Paris, London, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York, Istanbul, Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Phuket, Milan, Barcelona, Bali and Hong Kong.

Design/methodology/approach

Monthly based data measuring the tourism industry’s performance for these urban destinations has been collected. This data includes airlines’ and hotels’ performance, as well as potential tourists’ online searches. The obtained data has been combined using a principal component analysis, generating the UTPI.

Findings

The UTPI shows that all urban areas analyzed in this study experienced a devastating negative impact because of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. However, the tourism recovery evolution follows heterogeneous patterns.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed index can be estimated using additional variables. Moreover, the index is only estimated for 16 tourism cities. Future studies can reproduce the methodology by incorporating further variables and amplifying the geographical coverage.

Practical implications

The UTPI might be useful for researchers and policymakers interested in using a measure of tourism performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in some of the most important urban destinations. Likewise, the UTPI index may serve as a suitable aggregated measure of tourism performance in a post-COVID-19 era or to monitor tourism during future crises.

Originality/value

This study analyzes the tourism performance during the COVID-19 pandemic from an urban perspective.

Keywords

Citation

Anguera-Torrell, O., Vives-Perez, J. and Aznar-Alarcón, J.P. (2021), "Urban tourism performance index over the COVID-19 pandemic", International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 622-639. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-09-2020-0206

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, International Tourism Studies Association

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