Regeneration of domestic and foreign tourism in selected European countries in COVID-19 pandemic time

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to subdue it have led to the collapse of both domestic and foreign tourism. The article attempts to provide answers to the following questions: what was the occupancy rate of tourist accommodation facilities by domestic and foreign tourists in the European Union and in selected European countries? Does domestic toursim regenerate faster than foreign tourism? Which country has the greatest disproportions in the regeneration of domestic and foreign tourism? In order to answer the questions, it was decided to use the Excel program together with the R software, in which the analysis of the time series of the occupancy of tourist accommodation facilities throughout the European Union was performed. Based on the results of the research, it was found that, although in the initial phase of the pandemic, the decline in the occupancy of accommodation facilities was similar for both domestic and foreign tourists, in the following months the role of the former in the occupancy of accommodation facilities increased significantly. These differences were visible in all analyzed countries, which confirms the thesis that domestic tourism regenerates faster than foreign tourism. The largest disproportions among selected countries in the regeneration of domestic and foreign tourism were noticed in Malta.