The contribution of social tourism to sustainable tourism: a case study of seasonally adjusted programmes in Spain

ABSTRACT

Recent policy from the European Union has attempted to justify social tourism initiatives on the basis that they lead to a more sustainable tourism industry. However, the majority of latest research in the field has been focused on the benefits for participants, with the addition of some evidence on the economic impacts of such programmes on destinations, which have pointed towards sustainability outcomes including: a longer tourism season, more even spread of demand, and longer periods of employment for tourism workers. Yet there is a lack of direct evidence linking such programme to these outcomes. This paper aimed to explore this important disconnect between policy assumptions and evidence-based outcomes through an analysis of the deseasonalising effects of the Spanish social tourism programme for older people. The research found that this programme does have an effect on the seasonal nature of employment and economic activity in most regions studied, but that the huge volume of demand from international tourists in the high seasons masks the quantitative effects in the regions with the highest seasonal concentration of international tourists. Recommendations for policy and practice in sustainable tourism are made that are transferable to many countries and regions that adopt social tourism programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Social tourism
• Gini index
• seasonality
• relative marginal effect
• IMSERSO
• Spain

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the collaboration of the IMSERSO “Instituto de Mayores y Servicios Sociales” in providing the raw data for this research. The authors also thank the “Ministerio de Educación” of the Spanish Government and the “Unversidad de Málaga“ for their financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The coastal destinations analysed correspond to those consolidated by the IMSERSO trips (IMSERSO, 2015b): Andalucía: Almería (Costa de Almería), Granada (Costa Tropical), Huelva (Costa de la Luz de Huelva) and Málaga (Costa del Sol). Murcia: Murcia (Costa Cálida). Comunidad Valenciana: Alicante (Costa Blanca), Castellón (Costa Azahar) and Valencia (Costa de Valencia). Cataluña: Barcelona (Costa de Barcelona, Garraf and Maresme), Gerona (Costa Brava) and Tarragona (Costa Dorada). Islas Baleares: Mallorca (Mallorca), Menorca (Menorca) and Ibiza (Ibiza and Formentera). Islas Canarias: Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Tenerife). The different coastal destinations where the IMSERSO trips take place, which are located in each of the coastal areas are disaggregated into the methodology of the Hotel Occupancy Survey “Encuesta de Ocupación Hotelera” (INE, 2014d). Regions (bold); Provinces (regular); Coastal areas (italic).

2. Andalucía: Cádiz (Costa de la Luz de Cádiz). Cataluña: Barcelona (Badalona, Barcelona, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Sant Adria de Besos and Santa Coloma de Gramenet). Islas Canarias: Las Palmas (Fuerteventura and Lanzarote), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro). Regions (bold); Provinces (regular); Coastal areas (italic).

3. Direct and indirect employment generated or maintained by the IMSERSO in the low season are estimated in the yearly IMSERSO reports by the Special Commissions on Employment Monitoring “Comisiones Especiales de Seguimiento del Empleo”, which are composed of representatives of the central and autonomous administration, business organisations, and trade union centres in each region (IMSERSO 2014).

Additional information

Funding

“Ministerio de Educación” of the Spanish Government through its program “Formación del Profesorado Universitario FPU” [grant number AP2010-0532]; “Universidad de Málaga” under grant [“I Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia”].

Notes on contributors

José David Cisneros-Martínez

José David Cisneros-Martínez received the PhD degree in tourism and is a researcher at the University of Málaga. He has conducted research stays at the University of Nottingham and the Universidad Nacional de General San Martín. He is the author of papers focusing on tourism seasonality published in journals as Current Issues in Tourism, and Tourism Management; and has presented research papers to several international conferences in tourism.

Scott McCabe

Scott McCabe is a professor of marketing and tourism at Nottingham University Business School. His research is focused on tourist experience and consumer behavior particularly on issues around social tourism. He is the author of Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality, editor of the Routledge Handbook of Tourism Marketing and co-editor of Social Tourism in Europe. He has published widely on subjects such as the theoretical links between tourist experience and everyday life, and marketing communications.

Antonio Fernández-Morales

Antonio Fernández-Morales is a professor at the University of Málaga in the Department of Statistics and Econometrics. His research has been published in journals as Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, and Current Issues in Tourism; and is the author of several textbooks in Spanish about Statistical Methods for Tourism Analysis. His main research interests in the field of tourism are seasonality analysis and multivariate techniques applied to tourism analysis.