Global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic influence the way we travel and shape our tourism preferences. Understanding these changes helps to better recognise travellers’ needs and adapt tourism offerings accordingly. This issue was examined by a research team that included Dr Justyna Mokras-Grabowska and Dr Aleksandra Mroczek-Żulicka from the Institute of Urban Geography, Tourism Studies and Geoinformation at the Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Lodz.
The findings indicate that the nature of a journey is determined primarily by its practical aspects: the choice of means of transport, the travelled distance, the number of overnight stays, as well as the purpose of the trip. Compared with these factors, demographic characteristics, such as belonging to a particular age group, are of lesser importance.
The study also demonstrates the growing significance of flexible travel planning and tailoring trips to individual needs. Among the important directions for the development of tourism, the authors point to domestic travel, local tourism and the so-called slow tourism, which involves a more relaxed style of travelling and allows visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the places they visit.
The conclusions of the study may help adapt tourism offerings to travellers’ changing expectations. They may prove useful both for travel agencies and tourism organisations, as well as for institutions responsible for shaping tourism policy. A better understanding of tourists’ needs can support the development of a more flexible and accessible tourism offerings while also increasing the sector’s resilience to future crises.
Source: Roszko-Wójtowicz Elżbieta, Mokras-Grabowska Justyna, Grzelak Maria, Mroczek-Żulicka Aleksandra: Reconfiguring Tourist Segments: A Conditional Inference Tree Analysis of Polish Travel Patterns Before and After COVID-19, Networks & Spatial Economics, 2026, DOI:10.1007/s11067-026-09774-7.
