The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between the COVID-19 impacts on tourism and the political approaches adopted to overcome the crisis in this sector. There has been a deep reflection on a new tourism paradigm, guided by an increasing commitment to sustainability and innovation, which was triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak. This perspective reinforces the role of decentralisation and autonomy of policies at the regional level. A network governance model emerges as a strategy to overcome this crisis. A bibliometric analysis (