Dramatic shifts in the climate, the economy, global politics and technology made for a dramatic context in which to grow up, even before the emergence of a once-in-a-century global pandemic. While we know that the health effects of COVID-19 are less severe for young people, it has become absolutely vital to understand how the pandemic has affected young people’s lives in other ways - and not just those who are 20 years old but spanning age ranges from early childhood up to early adulthood.
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the UN’s leading agency for tourism development shares this concern, and during the past year, has turned to TOPOSOPHY for support in exploring these impacts, and the possible policy responses from a tourism standpoint.
With this in mind, we have worked with UNWTO to explore these vital questions from two angles, resulting in two separate studies, and we’re proud to announce that the first of these, The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Youth: Focus on Asia and Italy, has now been published by UNWTO. It explores the impact of COVID-19 on young people (Generation Z, aged 10-26 years) in Asia and the Pacific, and in Italy (as a special feature).
How were these regions selected? Prior to the pandemic, young travellers from Asia and the Pacific had largely been responsible for the rapid growth of international tourism in the region and beyond. As we observed in our 2016 report ‘Stepping Out of the Crowd’ for the Pacific Asia Travel Association, large populations of young consumers, a growing middle class with more disposable income, urbanization, rapid adoption of technology and improved gender equality had all helped to propel millennials from the region, followed by Gen Zs as the region’s primary consumers of travel. However, the pandemic saw the region hit by pandemic-related border closures for the longest period too.
Meanwhile, as the first host country to the Global Youth Tourism Summit (and the country which first saw the strongest emergence of COVID-19 in Europe), Italy was selected as a country which could provide interesting contrasts with countries in Asia and the Pacific, to help detect differences in pandemic impacts.
In essence, this first report explores the impacts that COVID-19 has had on those in younger generations at the time of this ‘once-in-a-century’ crisis, and asks how the pandemic has shaped the outlook of young people, particularly in relation to their personal and professional aspirations. The answer to these questions will arguably have important implications for the global economy and society in future years and, by extension, the future development of global travel too.
Characteristically, we looked for broader insights beyond tourism
While the pandemic’s impact on youth travel was of interest to our audience for this first report, we also felt it essential to build a more detailed picture of the ways in which it had affected young peoples’ lives beyond travel. For this reason, using diverse desk research resources from multiple sectors, we took a deep dive to explore its effects on young people’s education, career prospects, health and wellbeing, home life and consumer behaviour (in addition to taking a snapshot of the pandemic’s impacts on the leading youth travel products in each region).
The results we found were startling. The impacts of lockdowns and school closures have had a clear impact on young people’s mental health, while job losses in industries such as retail and hospitality have affected young people more than the population in general in terms of loss of experience and earning power. Digitalisation in sectors such as finance and retail has accelerated sharply (with a major rise in the use of digital wallets), while more time spent indoors, online has led to a sharp rise in childhood obesity.
TOPOSOPHY has a strong portfolio of projects stretching back over many years which have explored the values and attitudes of Millennials, and later Generation Z. In 2015 we produced our own paper Your Place on the Millennial Map, and the following year our report ‘Stepping Out of the Crowd’ for the Pacific Asia Travel Association in 2016 was one of the first to explore the travel attitudes of Millennial travellers in Asia, and propose solutions to the emerging challenge of over-tourism. In 2020 we produced a comprehensive study on Generation Z Travellers for the European Travel Commission and have also produced blog posts and webinars exploring the differences between these generations.
Responding across government departments
The challenges faced by young people as a result of COVID-19 are complex, and require a multifaceted response. For this reason, we felt it important to give recommendations on COVID-19 recovery measures to support young people across a range of policy areas. These recommendations are organised into five main areas: education, career development, responsible consumption, health and well-being, and travel and tourism. Each section lists detailed actions that governments around the world can undertake to support the recovery of young people and restore their prospects. By contrast, the second report in the series ‘Supporting a Youth Led Recovery’ (due to be published summer 2022) uses primary and secondary research to understand the priorities of young people around the world and give recommendations on what tourism ministries, in particular, can do to support young people’s development.
Access the report
The report was launched in July 2022 at the UNWTO’s recent Global Youth Tourism Summit (GYTS) in Italy, where our Head of Insights Peter Jordan officially presented to eleven Ministers of Tourism. It was produced with support to UNWTO from the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) and is now available to download from the UNWTO’s e-Library.
