Covid-19 affected tourism in a particularly hard way, forcing stakeholders at all levels to work on recovery while a number of experts pointed out that the pandemic constituted a momentum to change the future face of tourism. This paper focusses on a potential implementation gap, researching the question how local stakeholders handle the Covid-19 pandemic in practice, both in the short run and in longer term recovery strategies. Is a “business as usual” approach prevalent or can the pandemic be a catalyst for (major) transformations? The cases researched are historic cities in Belgium and the Netherlands. Although these countries lack a dominant tourism industry, especially their cities, as destinations, suffered considerably. Short-term crisis management as well as the vision, strategy and actions on how to recover in the long term, were the subject of a number of online workshops with tourism planning and management officials. These online workshops used an interesting software (MURAL) to fuel the interactive exchange of information and discussion. Keywords: Covid-19, crisis management, recovery, tourism policy, historic cities, Flanders (Belgium), the Netherlands. ; La Covid-19 afectó al turismo de manera especialmente dura, obligando a los agentes interesadas de todos los niveles a trabajar en la recuperación, mientras que, por otra parte, diferentes expertos señalaron que la pandemia constituía un impulso para cambiar la faz futura del sector turístico. Este artículo se centra en una posible brecha en la implementación del modelo de recuperación, investigando la cuestión de cómo los actores locales manejan la pandemia del Covid-19 en la práctica, tanto en el corto plazo como en las estrategias de recuperación a largo plazo. ¿Prevalece un enfoque de “negocios como siempre” o puede la pandemia ser un catalizador de transformaciones importantes? Los casos investigados son ciudades históricas de Bélgica y Países Bajos. Aunque estos países carecen de una industria turística dominante, especialmente sus ciudades, ...