COVID-19, Mental health, and integration of public policies in planning tourism

Abstract

We consider seven premises on which we point out some references here: 1) Tourism is an area of research, activity and planning of a necessarily multi, inter and transdisciplinary nature (CIRET, 1994; Pires, 1998; Max-Neef, 2005 ; Farias, Sonaglio and Ferreira, 2019; Rigolot, 2020; Neto (s/d); 2) despite being a social phenomenon in which economic aspects are visible, there is still a lack of studies that simultaneously address aspects related to sharing of its benefits; 3) the phenomenon necessarily requires and depends on communication and relationships between people; 4) when planning the activity, several public and private policies must be taken into account which, to be effective, require to be integrated with each other; 5) the recent pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 profoundly changed people's ways of life, causing severe impacts on the world economy and, consequently, on tourism, especially in its economic/social aspects; 6) COVID-19 has left numerous consequences, particularly in mental health, which has led health authorities and researchers to focus on studies and policies that can mitigate this damage (OPAS, 2021; 2022; 2023a; 2023b); 7) tourism, as an activity based on peace and respect for socio-biodiversity, can be a means that facilitates a broader view towards the recovery of the economic aspects of different sectors, with the restoration of people's health (Buckley and Cooper, 2020; Labib et al., 2022; Pitkänen, et al., 2023).
Discussing tourism with health as its central axis is an exceptional challenge, as everything happens simultaneously – what we see or study at a given moment are, in fact, slices of the reality of a continuum of human actions. In this process, there is no chain of facts in sequence.
The discussion was based on evidence identified in published work on the consequences caused by COVID-19 on mental health, which left relationships between people quite fragile and communication very sensitive. This scenario encourages bringing tourism and health closer together through the identification and integration of existing devices in various public policies. We seek support in the following Brazilian public policies: the National Mental Health Policy; National Health Promotion Policy; National Humanization Policy; National Continuing Education Policy; National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices; National Tourism Plan; and in Institutional Reports on Tourism and Climate Change, both national and international.