The study aims to explore the relationship between the pandemic and the tourism industry. The emergence of infectious diseases is one of the consequences of tourism and mobility of citizens. The article examines the scientific research of foreign authors on the impact of epidemiological diseases on the tourism industry. The pricing strategies of travel companies caused by the policy of curbing the spread of coronavirus infection are analyzed. The authors cite some forms of adaptation of the tourism industry to the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic (in such countries as Costa Rica, Jamaica, the Republic of Fiji, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Japan, the UAE, China). A statistical analysis of the tourism development in the Russian Federation (the number of incoming and outgoing tourists, the number of hotels and similar accommodation facilities) was carried out. The COVID-19 pandemic has reoriented the outbound tourist flow to domestic destinations. The advantages of developing domestic trips in comparison with international ones regarding their role in the economic development of regions are presented. The pandemic has led to an inevitable surge in the use of digital technologies due to the norms of social distancing and nationwide restrictions. One of the most popular forms of technological applications in the tourism industry is virtual reality. The use of virtual reality can contribute to the creation of a new, more sustainable model of tourism. The article presents four scenarios for the recovery of world tourism, developed by the McKinsey Global Institute and the Oxford Institute of Economic Policy (Oxford Economics). The authors identified priority areas of transformation of the tourism industry in the post-pandemic period, including at the technological level.