Vagabonds and Tourists in the Global South: The Sustainable Paradigm Reconsidered

Introduction

Without any doubt, the question of sustainable tourism or the urgency to achieve sustainable transformation in the tourist system was never debated before the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2019, a new ARN virus was reported in Wuhan, China. This virus rapidly not only disseminated through Europe and the US but also situated as a devastating pandemic that simply paralyzed the world (Mohanty, Hassan & Ekis 2020; Rastegar & Higgins-Desbiolles, 2021). Beyond the number of victims this virus left, governments disposed of restrictive measures to stop the viral dissemination without any practical results. These restrictive measures, which jeopardized local economies, included the air space and border closure, as well as the imposition of strictest lockdowns and the prohibition of free circulation (in some countries). The effects of COVID-19 varied from country to country generating more negative impacts in developing economies. The opposite is equally true, some tourism-dependent economies have been seriously harmed (Korstanje & George 2021; Korstanje Seraphin & Maingi, 2022). In this vein, Korstanje & George (2023) coined the term ghost city to denote a new facet of economic de-growth mainly marked by the decline of tourist cities. The tourist city (in Judd & Fainstein 1999) speaks to us of an urban area organized, interrogated and transformed by tourism consumption. The tourist city, at its best, should be valorized as the tug-of-war of the global capitalist system. Tourism today organizes and coordinates not only the chain of production and consumption in cities but also human relations. After the pandemic, The Ghost City –the opposite- resulted from the combination of two factors. On one hand, the imposition to be restricted (safe) at home avoiding any external contact. On another, the rapid transformation of digital technologies paved the way for new hybridized forms of tourism (i.e. virtual tourism). These radical transformations erupted in new forms of consumption, where physical displacement seems not to be a quintessential feature of tourism any longer (Korstanje & George 2023). In consonance with this, Urry conceptually divided the world into safe and unsafe destinations culturally engulfed in an aesthetic re-flexibility. Culture, people and merchandise are widely commoditized and consumed through the logic of what he dubbed the tourist gaze (Lash & Urry 1993). Having said this, the COVID-19 pandemic showed the vulnerability of the Western lifestyle, marked by overcrowding and the high mobility culture that connects distant cities in hours as well as the importance of a sustainable agenda to improve urban living conditions. In this context, some voices applauded the idea of a more sustainable agenda in the new normal, considering the pandemic as a turning point towards a green society (Gossling, Scott & Hall, 2020; Higgins-Desbiolles, Bigby & Doering, 2022). Other more sceptical studies are alarmed by the urgency to rethink the industry in a world without tourists (Korstanje & George 2023) or characterized by a deep sentiment of hostility against foreign tourists (Mostafanezhad, Cheer & Sin, 2020). It is tempting to say the pandemic opened the doors to inter-class inequalities as well as the deficiencies in the Western transport system. To achieve more resilient cities, one must discuss the next steps in the fields of sustainability as well as emergency protocols to deal with pandemics after COVID-19. Resiliency occupies a central position in the configuration of tourist cities for the years to come (Seabra & Bhatt 2022). As Baum & Hai (2020) put it, tourism was the main victim and carrier of COVID-19. The pandemic was facilitated because of a combination of over-populated cities with faster transport hubs. What historically was vital for Western mobilities, the right to travel has been suddenly cancelled. The regulation of citizens´ itineraries was coincident with an economic crisis that whipped capitalist societies while aggravating the existent social inequalities (among classes) (Yeh 2021; Kellerman 2023). In her book, Cultural (im) Mobilities and the Virocene, Rodanthi Tzanelli (2021) said overtly that the question of virocene is not given the saturation of capitalist accumulation. Rather it evinces a new mode of circulation where men are physically restricted while viruses impose their itineraries. Mankind is displaced to a peripheral position in the virocene, as she adheres, but what is more important, these restrictions wake up social discontent directed against authorities and foreigners. This conflict interrogates further the figure of the “stranger” as a potential enemy, risk or undesired guest. Under some context, this rivalry is extended to geopolitical tensions (Mostafanezhad, Cheer & Sin 2020). It is safe to say that COVID-19 has certainly aggravated the crisis of modern hospitality in a fractured world (Korstanje & George 2021; Korstanje & George 2023; Wassler 2023; Wassler 2021).