The influence of COVID-19 on the trajectory of tourism businesses with respect to climate change mitigation : Case study: Northern Dalarna region, Sweden.

Abstract: This research study is based on the way COVID-19 has affected the tourism businessesof the northern Dalarna region, Sweden. Moreover, how they responded to the crisis andif this response involved reconsidering their way of selling their touristic products. WithCOVID-19 effectively suspending the operations of the tourism sector such as air travel,the positive implications for climate change mitigation have been noted. This led toseveral speculations by researchers about the tourism industry taking this moment toreconsider their way of operating. However, these speculated decisions the tourismindustry will take amidst COVID-19 remain unproven. Therefore, this study aims todetermine how COVID-19 has affected the tourism companies of Northern Dalarna.Moreover, how these effects relate to conscious responses regarding climate changemitigation. Ultimately, this study intends to identify the relationship between the impactsof the present crisis COVID-19 and the future crisis that is climate change through thelens of the interviewed businesses in Northern Dalarna that effectively represent thetourism industry.Semi-structured interviews were employed as the main method for data collection. Seveninterviews of a diverse range of tourism businesses were conducted. The findingsacquired from the interviews show how these businesses have successfully overcome theeffects of COVID-19 while remaining open. The study concludes with very diverseperceptions of climate change from the companies. Moreover, how these perceptionshave evolved since the onset of COVID-19. Nevertheless, these companies had acommon point where independently of their opinion about climate change, all of themtook some actions to mitigate it. It was found that, for the case of Dalarna, Sweden,COVID-19 did not result in a moment for tourism companies to transform theirbusinesses to focus more on climate change mitigation. Business proceeded as usual interms of climate change mitigation and in the presence of COVID-19.There are several hypothetical studies on this topic, however, very few empirical studieswere found. This research contributes by showing how COVID-19 was not a time toconsider climate change mitigation according to the interviewed companies of NorthernDalarna, Sweden but merely a moment for minor adaptions.