Commuting and the urban night: nocturnal mobilities in tourism and hospitality work

ABSTRACT

The importance of the tourism and hospitality sectors to the urban night and the economies of cities has been well-documented. However, commercialised night-time leisure as a timespace of work remains relatively underexplored. A greater understanding of bars, hotels, restaurants and clubs as workplaces as well as leisure destinations can contribute to conceptualising the potential of urban nights to be more diverse and inclusive. This paper examines the challenges faced by tourism and hospitality workers who need to commute at night. Drawing on a mixed-method study of Sofia, Bulgaria, and Brussels, Belgium, the paper explores the barriers encountered and resources mobilised to make the nocturnal commute possible. The dimensions discussed include the need to continuously adjust one’s commute; the economic and non-economic costs of night commuting; cycling at night; and the impact of collegial and employer relations on negotiating the night commute. The paper demonstrates that while tourism and hospitality workers mobilise a range of economic, organisational, affective and physical resources in order to make night commutes possible, much remains to be done by urban authorities and transport planners to ensure inclusive nocturnal mobilities which attend to work as well as leisure journeys.

KEYWORDS:

• Commuting
• nightlife
• work
• urban mobility
• tourism
• hospitality

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Anna Plyushteva http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0701-1525

Notes

1 While some daytime public transport services continued to run until approx. midnight, field observations revealed very infrequent services after 11pm in most study locations.

2 Collecto operates between 11pm and 6am every night of the week. It requires that the user books their trip at least half an hour in advance, and boards the taxi at one of the designated Collecto stops across the capital region. A central dispatch point ensures taxi rides are shared by up to 3 passengers with similar routes, keeping costs lower. The Collecto service is paid for by the local authority, and provided by sub-contracted taxi companies.

3 Noctis is the brand under which the Brussels transport authority operates its night buses.

4 Villo is a shared bicycle scheme operated by the Brussels Capital Region in partnership with a private company. It was launched in 2009, and as of 2014 there were 346 stations where bicycles could be rented or dropped off. A number of pricing options are available, but a 150-euro deposit is required before using the scheme. As of April 2018, a similar scheme is in development in Sofia.

5 In Belgium, only companies with 100 or more employees are required to have a formal workplace mobility plan in place, which excludes the majority of tourism and hospitality businesses. No such legal requirement exists in Bulgaria.

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 703047.