The Tourism Industry's Performance During the Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this work, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the major tourism-related cryptocurrencies is investigated. More precisely, the variable lag causality is used, to test whether data related to the pandemic and more precisely, confirmed cases and lockdown stringency index, cause the cryptocurrencies from the field of tourism. Then, a possible long-run relationship is tested, employing the multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis, and finally, a time-varying regression model through a Bayesian framework is structured. According to the results, the COVID-19 pandemic had a diverse impact, of different magnitude, on the tourism-related cryptocurrencies for the years of the pandemic examined. This paper is the first to examine the impact of the pandemic on tourism, through the financial performance of the relevant cryptocurrencies related to this sector, also comparing the various years of the pandemic.