Análisis de los cambios en el comportamiento de los consumidores turísticos en la Región de Murcia (España) tras la aparición de la COVID-19

Abstract

Tourism was temporarily paralyzed with the arrival of COVID-19 due to the restrictions imposed, being one of the economic sectors most affected by the pandemic. The Region of Murcia, whose main economic engine is the services sector, is not left out of this situation. However, the decline in the number of travelers has not been so marked except, of course, during the months of home confinement. The pandemic has changed the behavior of people, so the main objective of the work is to know how the behavior of citizens in tourism has changed in the Region of Murcia. For this, the tourist occupancy data offered by the National Statistics Institute (INE) have been analyzed and 610 surveys have been carried out to analyze how the perception of citizens has been modified when traveling after the pandemic. The results show evident changes, since more tourist products are demanded away from the traditional overcrowded ones, such as rural or nature tourism, and the frequency of trips has decreased substantially, increasing interest in nearby places, even to be able to return to the address on the same day. Thus, the pandemic can be established as a turning point towards a change of consciousness among travelers, betting on a more sustainable tourism.