Abstract

The present chapter contributes to the literature by giving insights into a general tendency towards natural activities and active tourism that was evidenced after the first waves of the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented event, affecting everyone. However, some people found a chance for change, by adopting more sustainable and healthy practices, mainly in nature. In this context, transportation and mobilities were also affected, with many individuals turning to healthier practices, for example, walking, and cycling. This had also an impact on tourism since active traveling and green tourism re-emerged. Based on the literature, this trend resulted in the health empowerment and the well-being of individuals, proving that alternative ways to more sustainable and healthier practices, regarding tourism mobilities, exist.

Keywords

Tourism, Mobility, Nature, Active Travel, Green Travel

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic affected global society in many ways, mainly in a negative way. More analytically, it affected the psychology of individuals, impacting their well-being, their relationships, socialization, employment, and many other personal aspects of their everyday life. Furthermore, it affected their traveling activities and plans, their vacations, and their mobility, impacting in many ways Tourism.

In this context, individuals changed the way they perceive many activities, some of them being travel and tourism. People, in fear of contracting the virus, abstained from many activities, some of them being transportation and vacations. The lockdown measures made matters worse since the obligations made people even more limited. Many cases of difficult situations were reported, for instance being sick on deck (Mallapaty, 2020), being limited in a room, cabin, or motel, or facing many challenges to return safely at home (Gössling et al., 2020). These incidents made tourists change their preferences, in general, affecting their mobility, as well.

As a result, tourists’ preferences changed during the COVID-19 era in many ways. First, several tourists tried to abstain from certain activities that included overcrowding (Humagain and Singleton, 2021). Others changed their preferences, e.g., from indoor vacations to outdoor ones, since they merit positive psychological transformation in their life (Buckleya and Westaway, 2020), and decrease the probability of contracting the virus. Changing their preferences, tourists had to adapt their mobility, since transportation is closely related to vacations. Such transformations include a decrease in the use of sharing economy practices, for instance, in the use of ride-share services (Hossain, 2021).

On the other hand, not only negative issues emerged due to the pandemic, since many people trying to turn to natural environments, but also turned to more healthy practices in means of transportation, for instance, the increase in the use of bikes or walking, instead of using other means of transportation, when feasible (Sharifi and Khavarian-Garmsir, 2020). In this way, individuals merit the positive results of exercise, enjoy the natural outdoor environment, and decrease the probability of getting sick. Moreover, the use of bicycles increased significantly (Echaniz et al., 2021), rendering active tourism a nice choice for many tourists, especially during the pandemic.

The present chapter aims to give insights into the change in the preferences of tourists towards nature and outdoor activities, changing their vacations and their mobility, as well, rendering active tourism an up-to-date practice. The rest of this work is structured as follows: section 2 presents the literature review, section 3 describes the methodology followed, section 4 presents and discusses the findings, and finally, section 5, concludes the paper.

Literature Review

As we all evidenced, society was not prepared for such an unprecedented incident, as the COVID-19 pandemic (Zhang et al., 2021). Events with huge impact, force many people to change their everyday routine and their preferences. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was caused by both the COVID-19 virus spread and the quarantine that was imposed by many governments. Pandemics in general, and more precisely the COVID-19 pandemic, are known to have serious effects on many aspects of the transportation system, including tourism, and travel mode choice (Li et al., 2021).

The policymakers and governments took strict measures to avoid even more the spread of the virus. These measures were imposed also in public transportation and their stations, for instance, the obligation to open windows on rail and bus during their operation, the embarkment and disembarkment of bus passengers only from the rear doors to avoid contact with the driver, for the safety of his own and the passengers’, as well (Zhang et al., 2021). In many cases, it was recommended to individuals that wanted to transport with public means of transportation, to book online before their use of these means.

Many other restrictions, regarding physical contact, and the gathering of many people, took place, increasing the fear of individuals. In this way, most individuals, in fear of contracting the virus, became more dependent on their personal vehicles, leading to the excessive use of cars, motorcycles, etc. However, even though an increase in personal vehicles was evidenced at the beginning of the pandemic, this doesn’t seem to be the case in the long run. More precisely, it is disputed whether car usage continued to increase, since people’s habits changed even more, for instance, online working played an important role in that. In this context, Zhang et al. (2021) argue that if people change their activity patterns without using in a high frequency their cars, this can lead to less car dependence from individuals.

Moreover, sharing practices seemed to decrease during the pandemic, but not all sharing practices were impacted in the same way and magnitude. For instance, bike-sharing saw a lower decrease in its usage, even less than that of the subway (Texeira and Lopes, 2020), and on the other hand, the average duration of the bike-sharing usage activity increased, rendering it more resilient than the subway (Sharifi and Khavarian-Garmsir, 2020). This shows that even though the pandemic negatively affected the mobility of individuals, it was not of the same severity for all transport mobilities. In this way, some people preferred to continue to use specific utilities that were considered less risky, and even healthier.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism was severely impacted in many ways (Daglis and Katsikogianni, 2022; Schiopu et al., 2022). In this context, virtual reality came to play an important role, moderating this effect (Schiopu et al., 2022). More analytically, the ease of its use, and its perceived usefulness during this difficult period when travel was prohibited and many individuals were self-constrained due to fear of virus contract, led to the increase in its use. This can be better seen by the fact that with the fade of the crisis, the effect of virtual tourism on on-site tourism weakens (Zhang et al., 2022). We should highlight that according to the same authors, experience quality, project design, destination attractiveness, travel convenience, cost, and motivation, are factors that are known to affect tourists’ sentiments, and thus, they should be taken into consideration when planning and constructing virtual reality tours. In this way, virtual reality can contribute to the tourism sector’s sustainability (Talwar et al., 2022).  Moreover, apart from the remote aspect, virtual reality can contribute to these destinations’ recovery, and resilience, also after the COVID-19 pandemic (Kim et al., 2021). Finally, virtual reality and generally, new technological advancements, can contribute to the sustainability and resilience of tourism, and may help the sector address probable similar crises in the future (Nautiyal and Polus, 2022).

Furthermore, some people reduced their athletic activities in general, due to the pandemic. However, individuals in less active groups showed an increase in sports participation during the pandemic and more precisely during the lockdown measures (Schnitzer et al., 2020). In this context, certain people showed an increase in their exercise during the lockdown, with significant increases also in the use of fitness apps, online workouts, and home-gym exercises (Martin et al., 2021). These findings show that people tried to engage in sports and energetic activities to maintain their physical and mental health. Moreover, individuals started to engage in outdoor activities so that they could increase their time spent in a natural environment, with many positive advantages for their health, psychology, and life, in general (Pouso et al., 2021).

It has been shown that nature provides many opportunities for physical activity and emotional and cognitive renewal, relieving the negative effects of everyday stressors, and strengthening social relationships (Puhakka, 2021). In this study, the author found that most students described their daily activities during COVID-19 as active and nature engaged, for instance, walking, jogging, biking, observing nature, swimming, canoeing, boating, and fishing. Many individuals seem to have found a psychological and social resort in natural activities during COVID-19. In this way, people found a forgotten way to travel and spend their time, especially when on vacation, which is into nature, utilizing healthy means of transportation, mainly bicycles. These vacations could be of short-time span or multiple days.

As stated above, COVID-19 had an important impact on tourism, through travel cancelations (Gudmundsson et al., 2020), specific tourism activities abandonment, and many others. Similarly, it also affected the transportation sector, mainly through travel restrictions, fear of infection, and risks during travel (Zhang and Hayashi, 2022). Since the sectors of tourism and transportation are interconnected in many ways, one seemed to affect another. In this context, a deep change in the everyday preferences of tourists was evidenced, leading also to changes in their travel and vacation preferences.

More analytically, many leisure travelers changed their preferences regarding traveling, some of them even canceling their trips. It is interesting that even though a general tendency for personal means of transportation was evidenced, on the other hand, in places with many car restrictions, the use of bicycles increased significantly (Echaniz et al., 2021). In this way, people resorted to other means of transportation, some of them being healthier, for instance walking or cycling. A fact that helped in the bicycle adoption, was the transformation of many road traffic lanes into bicycle lanes, in places mainly of urban nature (Echaniz et al., 2021). This made tourists even more apt to bike utilization when on vacations.

In this way, during, and after the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, active transport re-emerged, gaining momentum globally, especially during vacations. In this context, Kim and Hall (2022) conducted a study, dividing their sample into three groups, namely, tourism, leisure, and work. The authors argue that the main reason to participate in active transport is for physical well-being and health in leisure in most cases (77.3%), while tourism is the second highest (64.1%), and tourism groups the third (60.0%). This specific study unveiled the importance of active traveling for the tourism industry.

Active travel comprises travel modes that promote physical activity with the most significant practices being walking and cycling (Alattar et al., 2021). It is known to reduce urban externalities, traffic congestion, health inequality, climate change, noise pollution, and social exclusion, being also able to boost life quality, improving physical and mental well-being (O’Dea, 2003; Hamer and Chida, 2008; Rissel, 2009; Grabow et al., 2012; Avila-Palencia et al., 2018).

Moreover, active transport produces the least possible pollution and provides health benefits (Welle, 2015; Macmillan et al., 2020; Nigg and Nigg, 2021). In this context, the benefits of walking and biking for the health of individuals and the sustainable character of human activity, are numerous (Kato and Progano, 2017; Han et al., 2020; Herrmann-Lunecke et al., 2020; Choi and Kim, 2021). We must point out that these activities should be considered in urban planning, sustainable transportation, environmental protection, and health benefits (Herrmann-Lunecke et al., 2020).

Furthermore, apart from being an environmentally friendly practice, active transport is considered a cost-effective transport mode, especially for tourists, improving the quality of life of individuals, and providing well-being to the participants (Scorza and Fortunato, 2021), contributing to unique and nature-based experiences. As one can imagine, there are many dimensions of active transport, also related to tourism (Hall et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2017; Karanikola et al., 2018; Perkumiene et al., 2020). More analytically, street networks and good regional accessibility, increase the trend for cycling, while an increase in retail shops and services near people’s accommodation encourages short day trips, and promotes even more active tourism mobilities (Lee et al., 2017). As a result, it should not be surprising that active travel commuters are found to have the highest possible levels of travel satisfaction (Ye and Titheridge, 2017), while active mobility and, even more, recreational cycling, seem to play an important role in increasing sustainable travel behavior of urban residents (Etminani-Ghasrodashti et al., 2018).

Active travel, in the scope of tourism, is also related to the natural environment. In this way, tourism mobilities, bicycle tourism, and walkability are some manifestations of green transport that are evidenced, contributing to environmental and social well-being, as shown by Perkumiene et al. (2020). The so-called Green tourism is gaining momentum, strengthened also by the improvements in infrastructures, and the incorporation of bike routes following the surrounding natural environment (Grossi and Mussini, 2021). In this way, tourists are more able to blend into the natural environment, in such difficult times like the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing significantly to their well-being. This kind of tourism is increasing in individuals’ preferences, achieving global sustainability goals (Shah et al., 2021).

We should mention that a term that emerged in the past and seemed to revive during the pandemic was walking tourism. More analytically, an increase in walking and biking has been evidenced in many places of the world, of different cultures, for instance, Bangladesh (Zafri et al., 2021), Toronto (Loa et al., 2021), and many others. This fact shows that the human need for well-being and sustainability is universal and part of human nature. In general, walking on vacations is known to contribute to an in-depth view of the natural and urban culture, blend into the environment, and promote personal well-being (Kato and Progano, 2017). Similarly, cycling tourism, which also emerged and became a trend during this pandemic, is known to contribute to physical and mental health, social connections, enjoyment, and sustainability (Han et al., 2020).

We should highlight that many aspects of tourism are interconnected, especially regarding cultural tourism and mobilities. Cultural tourism is growing significantly, and to give some numbers, in 2015, 40% of European tourism was attributed to cultural tourism (Silva and Henriques, 2021). Pilgrimage is also an important aspect of cultural tourism (Vijayanand, 2014), identified as a specific type of tourism, also considered one of the oldest types of tourism (Wu et al., 2019), affecting tourism mobilities since it is often associated with walking. Pilgrimage is known to have great importance for specific individuals, seeking spirituality, and often confronting body fatigue from many hours of walking (Wang et al., 2020). Pilgrimage tourism is widely spread to many countries, from Japan (Kato and Progano, 2017), to Europe (see among others Liutikas, 2017; Vistad et al., 2020; Siva and Henriques, 2021), Indonesia (Wu et al., 2019), Asia (Wang et al., 2020), and many others. Based on these facts, pilgrimage is very important for tourism, especially for places that are not engaged in any other type of tourism.

We should also note here that even for places famous for other facilities, for instance, the nightlife, if measures are taken, many other kinds of tourists, such as active travelers, can be attracted too. For instance, a case study regarding a mountain biking sporting event organized in Ibiza revealed that participants were motivated by physiological-sensory, utilitarian purposes, hedonic and previous experiences related to this event (Rejón-Guardia et al., 2020). The authors that conducted this research, found that the nice weather, the route signage, and the cost of the trip, were the main motivations for the tourist travelers that participated in this specific activity.

Outdoor recreational participation has increased significantly during COVID-19, and these facilities are proven to provide an opportunity to address concerns about diminishing nature pollution, and supporting connectedness to nature (Beery et al., 2021). These kinds of sports activities, combined with features related to tourism, have attracted many individuals in the past. Such initiatives have been shown to provide new opportunities for both residents and tourists, contributing also to economic growth (Schneider, 2009; Shonk & Chelladurai, 2008). Such initiatives, regarding mainly cycling tourism, have cited a significant contribution to the economies of many European countries (Rejón-Guardia et al., 2020).

On the other hand, it is important to mention that there are some obstacles in active traveling, especially in cycling, one of them being weather (Maltese et al., 2021). This makes imperative the need for weather forecasting before planning such activities, or vacations. Moreover, many outdoor recreational tourists were found to have some constraints during the pandemic, similar to those existing in many other types of tourists, as well. However, based on Humagain and Singleton (2021) these constraints can be addressed by avoiding crowds, changing leisure aspirations, and through extensive planning and information searching.

Furthermore, the results regarding active traveling, and more precisely, regarding cycling, show some deviations, for instance, they may differ for the first and second lockdown, the trip characteristics may affect cycle usage, or the hire of cycles near specific facilities (e.g., hospitals, rail stations, or parks) can play a role in the cycle sharing (Li et al., 2021).

Even though some limitations and difficulties still exist in active traveling, worldwide, many measures can be taken, and many approaches can be followed to render this type of vacation even more accessible to everyone, and sustainable, as well. To promote such facilities, innovation and socio-political measures are necessary (Tiznado-Aitken, 2021). Furthermore, more scrutinized research is required to come to more specific results regarding this field’s contribution, especially to sustainability. In this context, there is still a lack of a comprehensive approach regarding specific issues related to active traveling, for instance, the necessary land-use planning, citizens’ engagement in such initiatives, and many others (Maltese et al., 2021).

Finally, we should highlight that a general tendency for safe route programs has been adopted by many schools (Sagaris and Lanfranco, 2019; Schlüter et al., 2020), trying to promote active and healthy transportation of children, mainly through walking or biking to and from their school (Benita, 2021). Such initiations are of great importance since they can contribute to the increase in healthy practices adoption by individuals, in the long run.

Methodology

The present chapter is a literature review regarding Tourist’s change in preferences, also affecting their mobility. Of course, tourists’ preferences change in various directions, and the regional aspect may play an important role in that. However, if a general tendency, especially of global aspect, is evidenced, this proves an emerging trend. To specify such a trend, the literature review must be extensively examined, using specific and relevant to the topic keywords.

In this context, we mainly followed the semi-systematic review process since it is known to enable the covering of broader topics and more areas, and still, it is regarded as concise and effective (Snyder, 2019), having in mind that this methodological tool requires more development and tailoring than others (Wong et al., 2013).

More analytically, we started collecting the literature regarding the combination of keywords “tourism”, “mobilities”, and “COVID-19”, from the websites Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Also, alternative sources from Google were checked for a scrutinized approach. By the analysis of this literature, based on the findings, active tourism, walking, and cycling, were among other tourism mobilities and activities that emerged during the pandemic. In this way, as a next step of our analysis, in the second stage, we focused on the keywords “walking tourism”, “cycling tourism”, “walking during COVID-19”, “cycling during COVID-19”, and “active tourism”.

Of course, when finding relevant literature, we search again the aforementioned websites for specific references derived from the literature we already used, to enrich our findings and test whether our sources are up-to-date and valid. Finally, when our search is fulfilled, we then analyze and group the findings of the literature, capturing the overall picture.

Results

According to the literature, COVID-19 impacted society in many ways. Even though this impact was mainly negative, some positive aspects can also be found. One of these is the change in individuals’ preferences, regarding their everyday life, turning to more healthy practices, such as athletic and outdoor activities (Buckleya and Westaway, 2020).

As a result, many other aspects of an individual’s life seem to change, one of them being tourism, and the way people transport themselves when on vacations. An important finding is that during the pandemic, active, recreational, and outdoor tourism, re-emerged. The benefits of this kind of tourism, for health, are numerous and well-known (O’Dea, 2003; Hamer and Chida, 2008; Rissel, 2009; Grabow et al., 2012; Avila-Palencia et al., 2018; Scorza and Fortunato, 2021), and thus, during the pandemic, many individuals turned to this kind of vacations to better confront this difficult and oppressive situation (Beery et al., 2021). In this context, many tourists preferred to engage in walking or cycling during their vacations for their physical well-being and their health promotion (Kim and Hall, 2022). As a result, an increasing trend in walking and biking has been evidenced in many places of the world, see among others Zafri et al. (2021), Loa et al. (2021).

Even though this kind of tourism demonstrates numerous capabilities, some obstacles still exist. Some of them are the available infrastructure, the weather (Maltese et al., 2021), and the pandemic spread (Humagain and Singleton, 2021). However, with proper planning and organization, many of these obstacles can be adequately confronted. Having in mind the example of the mountain biking event in Ibiza (Rejón-Guardia et al., 2020) we can conclude that governments, organizations, and policymakers, can cooperate to face these obstacles, rendering this kind of tourism more sustainable. Moreover, Tourism can harm the environment, posing sociocultural risks (Liu et al., 2022), with negative impacts on the destination community (Haralambopoulos and Pizam, 1996; Ko and Stewart, 2002; Sequeira and Nunes, 2008; Tsundoda and Mendlinger, 2009).

Furthermore, tourism can harm the natural environment, climate, earth, flora, and fauna (Curry et al., 2002), especially in specific regions with certain peculiarities, for instance, Antarctica (Chen and Blume, 1997; Tin et al., 2009; Tejedo et al., 2022). Moreover, tourism mobilities are known to increase greenhouse gas emissions (Gühnemann et al., 2021). We should also have in mind that the impact of tourism may vary spatially and temporarily (Mathieson and Wall, 1982; Haralambopoulos and Pizam, 1996; Besculides et al., 2002; Dyer et al., 2007), and in some cases, the negative repercussions of tourism can even outweigh the probable positive benefits (Dwyer and Forsyth, 1993; Besculides et al., 2002; Mikayilov et al., 2019; Pickering et al., 2018). Some of the most common problems associated with tourism are known to be the littering of beaches, excessive car use, increase in waste, and waste thrown into the environment (Rajaonson and Tanguay, 2022). Active tourism can help in some cases to face these issues, leading to a win-win situation (Kim and Hall, 2022).

To face these issues, and render active tourism more sustainable, people should be advised how to behave in such places, and the school can also play an important role in that. For example, schools and institutions through educational programs (Sagaris and Lanfranco, 2019; Schlüter et al., 2020), can play an important role in promoting active and healthy transportation of children (Benita, 2021), leading to a change also in the society, since children are the future citizens.

Conclusion

The impact of human activity on the environment was visible when many activities were suspended, due to the lockdown measures imposed to limit the virus spread. In this context, many governments and policymakers want to encourage more sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation. In this way, a promotion for outdoor activities in natural environments, measures for its protection, and tourism activities incorporated in such places, are required.

Based on the literature, although the pandemic had a double-edged effect on peoples’ activities and travel behavior (de Haas et al., 2020; Bucsky, 2020; Aloi et al., 2020), even if total travel seems to decrease, people are beginning to adopt healthier practices in their life, for instance, biking and walking (Sharifi and Khavarian-Garmsir, 2020). These practices are also beginning to take place in tourism activities, rendering active tourism a trend right now.

Despite its importance, active tourism is underdeveloped in many countries. To confront this problem, it is very important to make facilities and take measures to promote active tourism. For instance, more trails for walking and cycling should be considered in sustainable planning and implementation, promoting these activities in schools, and among many individuals.

Furthermore, some measures should be taken, regarding the increase in the safety of excursionists, especially cycling travelers. Some of these measures may include traffic safety, risks awareness, recommendations for education, enforcement, engineering, and management of safety risks (Kim et al., 2022).

Concluding, we should gain some lessons from the pandemic. The tourism industry must be reformed and become more sustainable, embracing mindfulness (Stankov et al., 2020), and well-being, bringing us all, closer to nature.