ИСТИНА

The scale and strength of current global crisis in international tourism caused by the COVID-2019 pandemic are unprecedented. The study discusses the latest statistical estimates on the reduction of economic activity in tourism industry and the forecasts of the impact the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic may have on the recovery and transformation of the global tourism industry. The analysis of changes in domestic vs. international tourism ratio, in the purposes for travelling and priorities in types of tourism, as well as anti-crisis measures taken in different regions of the world indicate a fundamental change in the general model of tourism development. The current crisis in international tourism is characterised as structural, relating to the change of tourism business activity model. It can be discussed in the context of cyclical-wave development and appears to be the trough of the long wave descending phase. Signs of a new technological mode in tourism, which are now expressed primarily in the comprehensive digitalization of tourism activities, are clearly visible now.