The Covid-19 Pandemic and Slow Tourism

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented crisis in the tourism economy due to the immediate and severe shock to the sector. Normally, tourism is a sector that has always shown itself able to react to various crises (epidemics, terrorism, earthquakes), but the one caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have had profound and long-term effects, causing structural changes at all levels of the sector. One of the sectors that has suffered the most damage is certainly the tourism sector (travel restrictions, borders shutdown, fear of movement, etc.). Meanwhile, some authors have highlighted how this pandemic could become an opportunity to rethink tourism development strategies by starting a “resilient, sustainable and just economic recovery”. In this sense, a new research agenda related to the changes generated by the pandemic has been identified: a change in destination image, a change in tourist behaviour, a change in resident behaviour, and a change in the tourism industry. Considering these changes, this paper aims to deepen the opportunities provided by Slow Tourism, as well as tourism that can best respond to emerging trends, in terms of both supply and demand. Slow tourism, in fact, is a new philosophy of travel, able to minimize the impact on the environment, respecting the needs of citizens, exalting the specificity of places, involving users in a multi-sector experience, stimulating interactions with residents and privileging non-frenetic rhythms.