Anya Diekmann

Systems of social tourism in the European Union: a critical review

Recently, the European Commission (EC) has placed a focus on social tourism issues within Europe. The underlying logic of this intervention is that social tourism aims for social equity, aiding access to tourism to provide fair tourism for all citizens and contributing towards sustainability of the European tourism industry. By linking social tourism to sustainable development, the EC sets priorities for future policies to foster mobility within the community. Yet, most European countries have different approaches, priorities and diverse ideological interpretations of the role of the state in tourism provision. Consequently, systems and practices vary strongly between nations and seem to put the ideal of a common approach a very distant prospect. This paper outlines the context of these approaches to social tourism to highlight these challenges and to propose initiatives for the future integration of the European social tourism sector. It presents a comparative analysis of social tourism systems in seven European countries with important social tourism structures. The paper assesses different interpretations of social tourism, examining development and employment issues. In addition, the paper assesses the links with the commercial tourism sector and provides recommendations for future development in the social tourism sector and consequences for European policy.

The rights to tourism: reflections on social tourism and human rights

There is an increasing emphasis in tourism research on the role that tourism plays in enriching the lives of tourists, including impacts on health, well-being, happiness and quality of life. Tourism is increasingly being conceived as a necessity, rather than a luxury. This is especially so in the advanced economies of the world, but also increasingly in the emerging economies which have driven growth in international tourism demand throughout the recent global financial crisis. This leads to two interconnected issues: how to ensure that opportunities to participate in tourism exist for everyone in society, and whether access to opportunities can or should be considered a right. This paper discusses these issues by considering the position of tourism as a right and in the context of research on social tourism. It argues that tourism can be considered a form of social right, rather than a fundamental human right.

How capital are capital cities on the internet

Capital cities are gateways to countries or sometimes to broader political entities, such as Brussels for the European Union. They are also often major tourist destinations. A capital city has a symbolic value and is the political decision-making centre. Consequently, capital cities are places of power displayed through urban spatial development and often through heritage sites. This paper therefore looks at different capitals – new and old – to examine the use of ‘capitalness’ in their promotion on the Internet. The aim is to determine whether capital cities make a difference, by highlighting particular features and assets which are related to ‘capital tourism’ and the role of the city as national or supranational capital on their websites. More particularly, we examine the way in which these capitals promote tourism and the extent to which being a capital city actually plays a role in the choice of promoted sights and attractions. By means of a comparative study, this paper analyses the websites of capital cities and their ‘capitalness’ in terms of city branding.

Tourism and India: a critical introduction.

Tourism to and within India has undergone some important changes in recent years seen by the rising numbers of international tourists and increase in domestic tourism. This has led to the redevelopment and rebranding of many of its destinations as the Indian government has begun to recognise the potential importance of tourism to the Indian economy and has begun to invest in tourism infrastructure. It is also recognised that as its economy continues to grow at a rapid rate, India will also become one of the most important countries in terms of future outbound tourism. Tourism and India is the first book to specifically focus on and fully analyze the issues facing contemporary India both as a destination and a potential source of tourists. The book analyses previous research and applies critical theory to key aspects of tourism in this region and supports this with a wide range of examples to illustrate the key conceptual points. As such the book examines aspects of tourism in India including tourism governance, cultural tourism, heritage tourism, nature-based tourism from the supply side and international tourism, domestic tourism, outbound tourism and the Indian Diaspora from the demand side. This timely book includes original research to offer insights into Indias future development in terms of tourism. It will be of interest to students, researchers and academics in the areas of Tourism, Geography and related disciplines.

Social tourism today: Stakeholders, and supply and demand factors

As highlighted in the previous chapter, the definitions and consequently the expression of social tourism have developed and changed since its inception in the 19th century. In post-modern times there has been a significant evolution of the needs, the expectations and the possibilities (or opportunities) for holidaymaking and travel in general for the majority of people in Europe. Socio-political, economic and technological developments have forged a new context for tourism and created new travel opportunities (see Chapter 6). While the numbers of tourism trips have grown steadily over time, tourism participation levels in Europe have largely stabilised: there are still a number of groups in contemporary society who are excluded from tourism. Social tourism has adapted to societal changes and has changed its focus from factory workers and manual labourers towards the current main four target groups.

Social tourism: research advances, but stasis in policy. Bridging the divide

In the last 10 years, there has been a significant increase in interest in, and research on social tourism issues, particularly in the European context (McCabe, Minnaert, & Diekmann, 2011; Minnaert, Maitland, & Miller, 2009). Consequentially, there is now much greater evidence on the important role that social tourism can play in providing significant benefits for the people supported through social tourism schemes. These benefits have also been shown to extend to wider society and to destinations, businesses, governments and communities, which welcome social tourists and their spending. This research is building and spreading beyond Europe, to include a wide range of countries, supporting a diversity of social objectives, to the extent that we now have a much greater knowledge on the extent of social tourism across the world and the important roles it plays in societies. For example, recent research has conceptualised the links between social tourism and sustainable development (McCabe, 2018). Other studies have addressed the needs of specific social tourist segments in a range of countries, such as elderly people in Slovenia (Gabruc, Medaric, & Sedmak, 2018), or have addressed the transferability of social tourism systems to developing economies, such as Kazakhstan (Assipova & Balnur, 2017). Yet others have noted the important types of benefits felt by specific groups, such as the educational benefits of group tours of older Mexican people (Estrada-González, 2017) or how governments in South America developed social tourism policies (de Almeida, 2011; Schenkel, 2013). We have learned of the role that social tourism has played in the apartheid and post-apartheid era social life in South Africa (Adinolfi & Ivanovic, 2015), and an analysis of the potential for inbound social tourism in Egypt (Hamad, 2017). Whilst the research emerging may be characterised as nascent, exploratory or focusing on a particular aspect of social tourism, it is without doubt that there has been widespread, inter-disciplinary interest in the concept worldwide. Social tourism policies emerged in many countries in Europe and the Americas since the introduction of paid holidays for workers (Jolin & Proulx, 2005). These policies focused in general on programmes for specific target groups or on the public funding for social tourism provision. This policy context has remained fairly stable over a long period and has not witnessed much development over time. Yet in recent years, some governments have renewed their involvement in the area, which signals perhaps a growing demand for social tourism amongst the population, or a growing awareness by policy makers of the emerging evidence of social tourism’s potential to deliver benefits to local populations (either as consumers or producers of social tourism services). For example, a new nationwide initiative, called ‘ScotSpirit’, was launched by Visit Scotland, the national tourism board for Scotland in 2016 (see www.visitscotland.org). Whilst this is still at the small scale, and was supported by the London-based, U.K.-wide charity, the Family Holiday Association, that has been campaigning to put Social Tourism on the political agenda in the U.K. for many years, it represents a significant milestone. Another example of policy development is the recently revised policy on

The holiday-related predictors of wellbeing in seniors

ABSTRACT There has been an increase in research on the relationship between holidays and wellbeing in the last decade. However, only a few studies have investigated this association in seniors and the impact of holiday-related predictors of wellbeing is understudied. The aims of this study were to: 1) compare the profile of senior tourists and senior non-tourists on socio-demographic indicators, health, physical activity, and social relations, 2) compare the profile of senior tourists and senior non-tourists on wellbeing, after adjusting for control variables, and 3) examine the impact of holiday-related predictors (frequency, mean duration, frequency of physical, social, cognitive and relaxing activities, degree of perceived health benefits) on wellbeing of senior tourists, over and above the role of various relevant covariates. A sample of 4130 seniors (Mage = 68.2 years, SD = 5.8, range 60–85) filled out a questionnaire related to the last holiday, daily activities, health, and wellbeing. Results showed that senior tourists were younger, more educated, wealthier, and healthier than senior non-tourists. In addition, the levels of wellbeing were higher in senior tourists compared to senior non-tourists, after adjusting for control variables. Hierarchical regressions analyses revealed that frequent holidays, a greater frequency of social and cognitive activities, as well as the degree of perceived health benefits were associated with higher wellbeing.