Seasonality in Tourism: Do Senior Programs Mitigate It?

Abstract

Seasonality is a widely recognised and accredited phenomenon known to cause an imbalance in tourism activity throughout the year, prompting tourist destinations, both public and private, to consider how best to plan the use of their resources. One way of mitigating the economic imbalances that seasonality can cause is to find strategies for seasonal adjustment, such as travel programmes aimed at the elderly. This paper analyses the seasonality of tourism activity in some EU countries, and in particular in Spain. Different indicators are used to compare the results and carry out a sensitivity analysis. The study then focuses on tourism programmes for the elderly in Spain to see whether this type of programme helps to alleviate the seasonality of tourism activity. To corroborate this, an econometric model is specified and estimated, which enables the scope of these programmes to be compared.

Is Social tourism a vector for destination resilience to external shocks? Evidence from Spain.

“…In the case of the Imserso trips, the overall degree of traveler satisfaction is higher than 90% and it produces a favorable social impact to promote intergenerational solidarity (Imserso, 2021b), suggesting that the social justice aims of the program are met. However, there is a lack of literature on the contribution that these programs have in reducing seasonality and unemployment in destinations (McCabe & Qiao, 2020), with a recent exception being the study of Rico et al (2021). One study examining the contribution of social tourism to reducing seasonality was undertaken by Cisneros-Martínez et al (2018) through a quantitative analysis of the seasonal impact that Imserso trips have on the Spanish economy.…”

The Seasonal Labor Hoarding in Tourist Enterprises—Choice or Necessity?

“…The most important feature characterizing the activity of tourist enterprises is the seasonality of tourism demand, which occurs in all regions of the world [3,8,20,[24][25][26][27][28] and concerns various types of tourism [29][30][31]. Seasonality is the regular occurrence of changes in the volume of demand for tourist goods and services throughout the year (In theory, seasonal fluctuations are defined as changes in the time series repeated in certain seasons, or the systematic, though not necessarily exactly regular, movements of a certain size during the year [32], caused by weather and economic changes and the distribution of religious holidays.…”