Covid-19 and recovery strategies. Some insights from an ongoing exploratory study in the Italian hospitality industry: the case of the historic city centre of Venice

Covid-19 is disruptively impacting the tourism industry and the recovery will likely be slow and followed by important transformations for tourist companies. The paper wants to provide a contribution to the understanding of the immediate and future response mechanisms of tourism businesses for recovery. It is based on an ongoing explorative research started in June 2020 and based on interviews and focus groups among a small sample of hotel companies in the historic center of Venice - Italy. First insights show that recovery actions are still quite passive and defensive, due to the great uncertainty. Nevertheless, positive signals seem to come from the increase in direct sales and, surprisingly, in high-profile and high spender tourists. Businesses are dealing a situation that, however negative for their revenues, opens up the prospect of a new development for tourism in Venice different from mass tourism that was afflicting the city