COVID-19 AND INFORMALITY IN TOURIST SERVICE PROVIDERS IN THE DEPARTMENTS OF CUNDINAMARCA AND ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA

The emergence of COVID-19 has deepened structural problems such as informality in developing countries. The different sectors of the Colombian economy have been negatively impacted. The tourism sector has been one of the most affected and informality is therefore a determining factor on the productivity and competitiveness of the tourism value chain in terms of sustainable and quality practices. This research note seeks to establish the relationship between COVID-19 and informality in tourism service providers located in the departments of Cundinamarca and Antioquia, Colombia. For this purpose, a non-probabilistic sample of 209 service providers was established, applying a survey to analyze variables such as: Commercial Registry, National Tourism Registry, salaries, labor ties and affiliation to the Health System. Qualitative ordinal data were collected, coded and treated by means of correlation and associativity analysis methodologies using Kendall's & tau; Coefficient. It is evident that there is a low level of associativity among the variables studied; in the case of tourism service providers such as restaurants and bars, a higher level of informality prevails, and in lodging and restaurants, labor linkage predominates through verbal agreements that do not guarantee workers quality conditions and decent work.