Title:
1The future for tourism after the crisis does
social tourism offer a route to sustainability?
- Scott McCabe,
- Deputy Director, Christel DeHaan Tourism and
Travel Research Institute, Nottingham University
Business School - scott.mccabe_at_nottingham.ac.uk
- http//www.nottingham.ac.uk/ttri/
2introduction
- What is the prospect for tourism in the short
term? - What is the role of tourism to individuals and
society? - Social tourism definitions and actions?
- The scope of social tourism in the UK?
- The benefits of social tourism to the tourism
economy? - Social tourism as sustainable tourism for the
future post-market society? - Tourism and public policy debates?
3Economic crisis what crisis?
- 2008 international tourist arrivals 924m
- 2 growth for 2008 (but a -4 dip in 2009)
- However North and West Europe is faring much
worse than other regions (489m international
arrivals for 2008 represents zero growth on 2007) - Clearly the business travel sector is badly hit
- People taking less holidays and travel trips
- Cutting back on volumes and spending on holidays
- Holidays remain an important feature of household
budgets (consumers likely to trade down, not out) - Cruise and all-inclusive sectors are doing
reasonably well - Recession fatigue pushing holidaymakers to
splash out - New trends staycations, enjoy every minute,
domestic travel, home-stay holidays, new forms of
sustainable and environmentally friendly
alternatives glamping
4But
- Trading conditions are very tight
- Operators are cutting back on capacity
- Small operators are badly hit
- Firms are focusing on their segments/margins
5Why is tourism important?
- Everyone has the right to rest and leisure,
including reasonable limitation of working hours
and periodic holidays with pay (Universal
Declaration of Human Rights 1948 24) - Everyone has the right to leave any country,
including his own, and to return to his country
(Art 13 (2) Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1948)
6Manila declaration (1980) on world tourism
7Tourism as a social policy concern
- For working people they (holidays) represent an
essential break, and for those who live in
stressful and isolated situations through old
age, ill-health or family circumstances they are
recognised as having important medical and social
benefitsit is a reflection of our social policy
that those who are most in need of the benefits
that a holiday can bring are least able to take
one. (source ETB/TUC 1976 5)
8Policy context UK
- Three 'Breadline Britain' surveys that examined
public attitudes to poverty and social exclusion
found that a key activity which the majority of
respondents (representative of the whole
population) believed was that no one should be so
poor as to be unable to afford a week's holiday
away from home each year (Gordon et al, 2000). - However, it is suggested here that the inability
to participate in tourism has been neglected in
UK government policies that are aimed at
alleviating social exclusion and that the concept
of Social Tourism has achieved very little
recognition in policy discourse in the UK
(Corlyon and La Placa 2005 Hazel, 2005).
9Social policy and tourism?
- Despite central place occupied by leisure and
recreation access as a social policy concern over
a long time (e.g. Cahill 1994 Clarke and
Critcher 1985 Glyptis 1989 Gratton and
Taylor 1987) - Holidays have always occupied a grey area in
social policy texts. - Always positioned as a component of leisure
provision, exclusion linked to immobility
(Cahill 1994)
10Holiday participation in the UK
- consistently only 60 of UK population takes a
holiday (Roberts 2004) - In 2005-6, 3.8m children in the UK were living in
income poverty a rise of 200 000 on the
previous year (DWP 2007) - In terms of material deprivation, the HBAI report
utilises the FRS data (since 2004). 55 of
children living in the lowest income quintile do
not have access to a weeks holiday each year
compared to 3 in the top quintile (DWP/HBAI
report2007 14). - The poorest 10 spend an average 2.50 per week
on holidays compared with 68.70 per week by the
richest 10 (Roberts, 2004a).
11UK domestic trips by social group
- Social Economic
- Grouping Trips (millions) Nights
(millions) Spend ( millions) - AB 42.88 126.67 8010.05
- C1 40.77 124.72 6618.23
- C2 21.23 69.58 3425.3
- DE 21.42 79.11 2911.35
Source UKTS 2006 final results
12Holidays are not available to all in society
but participation may not be linked only to low
incomes but other aspects of material deprivation
13South West has a relatively low proportion of
people in low incomes
14Eurobarometer Survey on the attitudes of
Europeans towards Tourism reflects long term UK
trends
- Overall, in 2008, two-thirds of EU citizens (67)
made a private trip where they spent at least one
night away from home 58 took a vacation,
defined by a stay somewhere away from home for at
least four consecutive nights for private
reasons. - Most citizens who did not take a holiday in 2008
said this was due a lack of the necessary funds. - About 1 in 10 (11), however, said they had
serious financial problems that could impact
their holiday plans. There were only six Member
States where a clear majority who planned to take
a holiday were confident they could afford to
take a holiday in 2009 Finland (69), the
Netherlands (66), Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark
(all 62) and Austria (60). - while almost half (46) of the most-educated
respondents who had made short private trips in
2008 had made at least three such trips during
2008, only 30 of the least-educated respondents
had done so. Amongst the latter, 42 had made one
short trip and 24 had made two such trips
(compared to 27 and 25, respectively of the
former)
15Shows the effects of economic conditions on the
accessibility of tourism
16But UK is relatively poor
17Who is affected by poverty and social exclusion?
- social exclusion, material deprivation social
and relational aspects of poverty. - Families on low incomes
- Families living with a disabled member
- Single parent families
- Older people
- Children living in low income households
- Socially isolated people
- People with reduced mobility
18- 27 of disabled children in the UK are living in
poverty - It is 3 times more expensive to bring up a child
who is disabled - In the UK last year there were around 4m people
working on less than 7 per hour (the low pay
threshold), many were part time and the
proportion of women to men in the part time group
was far higher - Low income In 2007/08, 13½ million people in
the UK were living in households below the
low-income threshold. This is around a fifth
(22) of the population. - In the same period 4.0 million children were
living in low income households.
19Hazel (2005) suggests the following benefits for
both disadvantaged and socially excluded
individuals and families from holiday taking
-
- relief from stressful or mundane situations and a
break from routine - mental health and well-being benefits
- the encouragement of social interaction
- the broadening of experience and widening of
horizons - the development of independence and
- the strengthening of family relationships.
-
20Benefits of participation?
- health benefits
- extensive survey by the English Tourism council
(ETC 1999) into the health benefits of holidays
which revealed that 91 of General Practitioners
in the UK believe that a holiday can enhance
quality of life. - It also stated that 87 believed that a holiday
could help alleviate behavioural problems and
(childhood) stress-related illness in children. - (Lewis 2001)
21What is social tourism?
- Hunziker (cited in Minnaert et al 2009316),
describes Social Tourism as the relationships
and phenomena in the field of tourism resulting
from participation in travel by economically weak
or otherwise disadvantaged elements in society - all of the relationships and phenomena resulting
from participation in tourism, and in particular
from the participation of social strata with
modest incomes. This participation is made
possible, or facilitated, by measures of a
well-defined social nature. (BITS)
22Beset with definitional problems
- The term social tourism is used mainly in
France, Belgium and Italy. The adjective social
has indeed different connotations in
English-speaking countries. There social
tourism is often associated with ecotourism or
volunteer tourism. (Diekmann et al 2009) - A survey conducted among social workers in 2006
in the UK by the Family Holiday Association
showed that 68 of 273 respondents had never
heard the term social tourism and a large
majority was not familiar with the continental
system of holiday vouchers. (FHA example used in
Diekmann et al 2009) - Minnaert et al (2007) argue that there is a
difference between visitor and host-related
definitions of social tourism encompassing a
variety of different initiatives, commercial and
non-commercial, governmental and private.
23Key issues
- No general social tourism concept
- Numerous definitions
- Different social tourism systems and
implementation schemes - Little research....
24Social tourism research
- Limited
- Often focuses on barriers to participation and
benefits to specific target groups - Charity sector has limited resources to undertake
detailed research - Charities often serve a particular group and so
research is not connected - Recent renewed interest
25Attempt to tackle major research categories who
does what?
social (and/or health) issues and policies Supply aspects environmental and sustainability aspects Consumer side
Richards 1998, 1999 Higgins-Desboilles 2006 Hall Brown, 19962006 Connell 2000 Hazel 2005 Long, McCabe and Scullion 207 Minnaert, Maitland and Miller 2009 Mainly social tourism organisations Ryan 2007 Smith and Hughes 1999 Hunter-Jones 2003, 2004 Shaw and Coles 2004 Lewis 2001 Minnaert, Maitland Miller 2007 McCabe 2009
26However
- Very little consideration of non-participation
- No knowledge of voluntary self-excluders
- No macro-scale analyses of datasets of
participation - Lack of dialogue with some key areas of social
science including social policy research
27Social Tourism some relevant theoretical concepts
- Economy
- Supply and tourism employment,
- seasonality,
- economic impact of social tourism initiatives
- Social issues
- Social policy and social justice
- Wellbeing and quality of life
- Education and employment
- environment
- Sustainability and seasonality
28issues
- A need for much greater research on benefits,
disparities of participation - Great dialogue between tourism research and
leisure, sport, recreation and the social policy
academic fields - Need to engage Government and local political as
well as the charity/voluntary sector in making
the case for social tourism
29The organization of social tourism in the UK
- We undertook a study (June 2009)
- 650 organizations listed on a online charity
directories - 88 selected Registered charity as the current
status of their organisation and - 85 indicated that they are currently providing
access to short breaks/respite care/holidays for
disadvantaged or sick people. - Other types of organisational status were hospice
(5), local government initiatives, respite care,
faith organisations and individual support groups
(2 each).
30How are they involved?
- 67 selected grant-giving for breaks and respite
care provision as their main type of support, - the remaining were subsidised or free
accommodation (21), - provision of information and other services (9)
and - support in completing applications to
organisations which offer funding (3).
31beneficiaries
32UK social tourism providers
- Mostly small charities
- Main aim is to provide breaks/holidays
- Dealing with small numbers of beneficiaries
- Targeting specific groups
- Have funding issues
33Different models of social tourism in Europe
Specific Accommodation Facilities
Holiday voucher
Funding for disadvantaged people
Source Diekmann et al 2008 and Diekmann and
McCabe forthcoming
34Funding social tourism initiatives in the EU
Working/Middle class families Unemployed families Seniors Disabled Youth
Direct State funding Germany Germany Spain Germany Germany Poland Belgium France
Public Health care Belgium
Worker Unions France Belgium Romania
Charities UK UK UK UK UK
Source Diekmann and McCabe forthcoming
35Who needs a holiday? Evaluating social tourism
(McCabe 2009)
- Study undertaken with the social tourism forum
(3 major charities) - Analysis of application forms and a follow-on
survey and focus groups - Aim was to develop better data collection to
inform policy and to understand the benefits of
financial support for holidaymaking
36The needs for and benefits of a holiday
37We need a holiday because?
- To escape difficult circumstances
- practical
- physical/environmental
- relational/social
- and health/individual.
38 The analysis revealed how applicants felt the
holiday would provide opportunities and benefits,
including
- to have fun
- to be normal
- to create memories
- to have a change of scene
- to relax for a change
- to experience new things
- as a reward for something.
39- Follow up survey results opportunity for fun and
happy memories for the children is most important
40Focus group findings
- The chance to have fun/having fun together.
- Chance to get away. Being active and
experiencing new things/places. - Freedom (from chores, routines, freedom of the
mind). - Changed pace of life. Unwind, slow down, step
back, live differently. - Appreciate home more
41Childrens perspectives
- Activities and adventures
- Having fun
- Doing new things
- Playing together (cousins and new friends)
42Policy implications
- in relation to current UK Government concerns on
- Citizenship,
- Social inclusion and integration (cohesion)
- Health and wellbeing,
- Ageing,
- Disability and mental health
- poverty.
43Clearly an important role for holidays in
policies on children and families
- health and well-being particularly in relation to
the treatment of stress related illnesses and
disorders but also in a range of other potential
treatments or holistic and alternative therapies
in terms of children on - Education, child growth and development, skills
development - social inclusion, life satisfaction. Quality of
life - work and return to work policies.
44Example older people
- Age Concern identify that the benefits of
holidays to older people can include - confidence building,
- socialising, and
- providing a benefit for carers (who could
accompany their friends or relatives or decide to
stay behind and have a break from their caring
role).
45Ageing population exacerbates a problem for older
people
- half of all pensioners do not meet minimum income
requirements to provide for a modest, but above
poverty level, lifestyle (including two 5 five
day holidays in the UK not abroad, and no
private transport). - This figure is likely to rise even higher in
future. - Age concerns Director-General, Gordon Lishman,
said Our pensions system simply isnt working.
Too many older people today are not reaching
decent incomes in retirement and the position for
future pensioners is uncertain. - (Age Concern Modest but Adequate 2002)
46- National Benevolent Fund for the Aged
(www.nbfa.org.uk) identify - helping to combat the isolation and loneliness
that older people feel once the front door is
shut. The holiday provides an opportunity for
socialising, having fun and making new friends.
The change of scene is rejuvenating and boosts
self confidence for people who are living on
their own. The benefits of the holiday continue
long after the return home with holidaymakers
continuing to meet with new friends. - There are also potential health benefits
- physical benefits brought about in a change to a
favourable climate or more perceived health
benefits brought about by a change in scenery
etc. - do holidays help with the grieving process?
- Role of Holidays in the National Dementia
Strategy (2008), 570,000 UK sufferers, set to
quadruple in 30 yrs time
47Example young people
- Holidays can influence life chances i.e.
impact upon the future development of the
individual - Provide opportunities for young people to learn
more about themselves and develop their
interpersonal skills in a fun and engaging
environment out of the context of the home - The YHA are long established and active providers
of opportunities for disadvantaged children e.g.
Community Spirit Breaks to combat community
cohesion issues (DCFS)
48children
- Children perhaps occupy a privileged position in
consideration - According to a recent UNICEF report on child
wellbeing, the UK ranked lowest of all the OECD
countries. - The Children's Commissioner for England,
Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, said "We are
turning out a generation of young people who are
unhappy, unhealthy, engaging in risky behaviour,
who have poor relationships with their family and
their peers, who have low expectations and don't
feel safe. (BBC 24/02/07)
49Other groups
- New economic migrants/established migrant
communities - Ethnic minority groups
- Disabled people (currently 2.7m people on
incapacity benefits) - Particularly concerning is the rise in mental
health problems in society - Not simply an issue of poverty but many
disadvantaged groups have combinations which make
participation more difficult i.e. poverty ?
50- But there are also wider implications than simply
for individuals and UK society, there is the
impact on the tourism industry itself and the
wider EU economy/society
51Sustainable tourism is social tourism
- In promoting access for groups for which going on
holiday has progressively become more difficult,
social tourism strengthens the tourism industry's
revenue generation potential. Social tourism aids
mobility and enables off-season tourism to be
developed, particularly in regions where tourism
is highly seasonal. Accordingly, social tourism
encourages the creation of longer-lasting
employment opportunities in the tourism sector,
in line with the Lisbon Strategy, by making it
possible to extend such jobs beyond the
respective peak season - (http//ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tourism/major_acti
vities/social_tourism/index_en.htm) June 2009
52- ANCV
- 2.5 million people purchase holiday vouchers
-
- A total of 7 million people accessed a holiday
per year as a result of the vouchers -
- 135,000 outlets accept the holiday vouchers
-
- Over 3 billion Euros put into French domestic
tourism industry -
53- IMSERSO
- Helps 700,000 old people access low season
holidays at the Spanish seaside at a cost of EUR
75 million but results in additional government
revenues of EUR 125 million - 8,000 direct jobs and an estimated 45,000
indirect jobsPwC evaluation indicated that it
had recognised health benefits but had not
calculated savings to health service.
54Study on the Competitiveness ofthe EU tourism
industry Nov 2009
- Action 4.3 - Support tourism for all at EU
level DG Enterprise currently coordinates the
Calypso action which particularly aims at
elaborating a mechanism enabling particular
target groups (senior citizens, young people and
families facing difficult social circumstances)
to go on holiday in another Member State, on the
basis of themed programmes and accommodation
offers recommended by public authorities
(national, regional or local), possibly in the
low season. The rationale behind this initiative
is to enhance employment, reduce seasonality in
tourist demand and improve regional and local
economies.
55Calypso prepatory actions and outcomes
- generate economic activity and growth across
Europe (by facilitating the development of
European tourism programmes for target groups). - improve tourism seasonality patterns across
Europe, particularly through the social policy
function of tourism (tourism growth patterns
encouraging economic activity by target groups
during the low season as a means to reduce
unemployment risks for tourism personnel
mitigating pressures on the physical
infrastructure of developed destinations by
promoting tourism outside the peak months assist
in the development of small emerging destinations
in the context of regional development). - create more and better jobs in the tourism sector
(respect for tourism sustainability challenges
strengthening full-time employment prospects as
opposed to seasonal part-time work improving
employment conditions by stressing the importance
of a qualitative work environment throughout the
entire tourism supply chain). - increase the European citizenship (providing
tangible opportunities to improve mobility,
self-fulfilment, socialising and active learning
for families, youths and seniors). - (http//ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/so
cial-tourism/calypso/index_en.htm)
56Discussion issues
- Role of tourism participation in contemporary
consumer society? - Contribution of tourism to achieve personal and
social development? - Need for much greater research on social tourism?
- Government role to provide stimulus to tourism
industry?
57Many thanks!Any discussion questions