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

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Barrie Melvyn Mathews
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1 The contribution of social tourism to sustainable tourism: a case study of seasonally adjusted programmes in Spain José David Cisneros-Martínez, Scott McCabe, Antonio Fernández-Morales scott.mccabe@nottingham.ac.uk

2 Aims the presentation Does social tourism contribute to economic sustainability? Evaluate the actual contribution of a social tourism programme to extending the tourism season Provide evidence of the deseasonalising effects of social tourism programmes (Spain) Provide recommendations

3 Social tourism and sustainability Social tourism a holistic concept which aligns with sustainability Social tourism shares many characteristics with sustainable tourism (economic benefits shared more widely, local transport, domestic tourism) Shared historical roots Shared desire to reduce inequality

4 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. Yet little actual evidence to support these claims

5 Social tourism in Spain IMSERSO 66m Euro budget 2014, subsidises 20% of the trip 1.54 euros recovered in tax revenue for each 1euro invested Nearly tourists supported in 2014/15 77, 294 job created 7.35m overnight stays

6 Data and methodology We investigated IMSERSO trips taking place in six regions: Andalucía, Murcia, comunidad Valencia, Cataluña, Islas Baleares and Islas Canarias The data for this analysis come from different primary sources on a monthly basis encompassing the period 2007 to 2014: (a) Number of overnight stays by domestic and international travellers, and employment in hotels located in the coastal destinations analysed (INE, 2014b, 2014c); (b) Number of overnight stays by domestic and international travellers and employment, in hotels of all categories in the provinces where the coastal destinations analysed are located (INE, 2014b, 2014c); (c) Number of overnight stays by domestic travellers who are beneficiaries of IMSERSO trips in hotels 3 and 4 stars in regions where the coastal destinations analysed are located (IMSERSO, 2015b). This last series (c) has been developed specifically for this work thanks to collaboration between the researchers and IMSERSO. The Gini index is a measure of concentration used as an indicator of the annual concentration degree of the tourism demand The additive decomposition of the Gini index (Lerman and Yitzhaki 1985) permits the calculation of Relative Marginal Effect (RME) on the Gini index of the overall demand that would produce a relative increment of the demand for a segment, maintaining its temporal distribution. This effect allows quantifying the impact of social tourism in terms of reduction of seasonality in the destinations analysed. K K G C i S i + S i C i i=1 i=1

7 results In all the regions the IMSERSO activity significantly softens the seasonal concentration of tourists The massive effect of international tourism tends to mask the positive effects in some regions There is variation in effects depending on the specific region, where different seasonal demand profiles moderate the overall effects of the IMSERSO activity When IMSERSO activity reduces (due to cuts in funding), the seasonal spread of demand is more highly concentrated

8 RME for 2014 data Andalusia, Murcia, CV, have the greatest potential for social tourism to reduce seasonal concentration Canarias intermediate, Balearics and Cataluna less so, but because the effect of international demand skews the findings The volume of direct jobs generated by IMSERSO in the low season is highly relevant in all regions.

9 Conclusions One of the main objectives of social tourism is to provide greater economic sustainability to the tourism industry in the low season. In Spanish coastal resorts there is a high level of seasonal unemployment. The IMSERSO activity was found to be a very useful tool against seasonality, leading to more jobs, better social opportunities in the low season and a more vibrant economy. The extremely high seasonal concentration is all the destinations has become more pronounced due to the reduction in IMSERSO activity. The RME shows that increasing the social tourism activity would produce negative, short term effects on the seasonal concentration in all the areas. Social tourism could be extended to younger-senior groups (over 55 s), people with disabilities, or low-income groups to expand the social impact of the activity.

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