Couertsy: pebblemag.com

At the start of each new year, we see countless articles highlighting the anticipated travel trends for the coming months. I don’t think anyone could have predicted that catch phrases such as “mask up” and “social distance” would top the list for 2020.

We always talk about how tourism is such a powerful industry, and that’s certainly true. But sometimes this leads us to forget that tourism is also extremely vulnerable to threats such as disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks.

These threats have the power to bring tourism to a sudden halt by disrupting the global supply chains that tourism businesses depend on, leading travelers to fear for their health and safety, and damaging the environments and infrastructure that the industry relies on.