Tourism Seasonality

TOURISM SEASONALITY Seasonality has become a prominent aspect of tourism in many parts of the world, and is generally seen as one of the major problems experienced by the sector. Butler (1994, p. 332) defines it as ‘temporal imbalances in the tourism phenomenon, which can be expressed in terms of elements such as visitor numbers, visitor expenditure, traffic on roads and other forms of transport, employment and admission to attractions’. Various attempts have been made to reduce seasonality in tourism; it has long been identified as a major cause of low returns on investment, problems with employee retention and over- or underutilization of physical capacity. These temporal variations in the pattern of human flows can occur at different scales: hourly, daily, weekly and monthly. One example is the passenger flow at city centre airports, which are often focused on domestic passenger traffic on business. In this case, peaks can be expected during weekdays, in the morning (around 8am) and at the end of the day (between 5 and 7pm). Variations between days of the week can also be identified, with increased flows at the beginning (Monday) and end (Friday) of the week, when many executives leave for work and then return to their cities. Weekly changes in passenger flows can also be identified from one week to another, for example, in weeks with holidays such as Christmas Eve and New Year. Finally, passenger flows fluctuate from one month to another, due to, for example, during holiday periods (summer or winter, school holidays) and the rest of the year. Variations in demand impact different aspects of the behavior on the supply side. In business terms, the financial aspect is particularly affected because there are variations in cash flows, prices and opportunities to attract investment. With regard to the labor market, temporary labor is often used in the high season, which means that the quality of workers and skills are not always adequate because they are not well trained. Various marketing aspects are also affected, such as distribution, prices and the type of packages offered. There are variables that explain seasonality in relation to tourism, some of which are highlighted below (Butler, 2000): • Weather: climate variations and seasonal changes, leading to a greater tendency for people to take holidays during the summer, although smaller peaks are also observed in the winter (e.g. sports enthusiasts, such as skiers). • Human decision factors: institutionalized holidays, such as school and permanent workers, which usually occur in the summer. • Social pressures and trends: teenagers will visit Disney during school holidays, students take a gap year for backpacking. • Sports seasons: fishing competitions. • Inertia and tradition: some individuals take holidays at a certain time because that is when they have always taken their holidays. Seasonality is strongly influenced by the spatial component; it is more pronounced in rural and remote areas than in large urban centers. The latter have more non-seasonal attractions, in addition to more business travel, and in many cases are less vulnerable to environmental impacts, whereas fragile environments need the low season to recover from the influence of tourists. Another interesting aspect that influences the seasonality of tourist destinations is the use of the Internet for booking. Boffa and Succurro (2012) show that the use of the Internet has influenced seasonality because it encourages people to travel as a result of access to destination tourism information, increasing their chances of making a trip. The Internet also reduces travel costs through online booking of airline tickets, hotels and tours, increasing tourist flows in the destination. As a result of online booking, travel agencies have also changed their pricing strategies, lowering prices and creating increased demand in the destination. Consequently, the Internet increases the elasticity of demand due to online booking and discounts imposed by travel agencies. This effect is stronger during the high tourism season of the destination. Seasonality can be considered beneficial in two respects. In environmental terms, the 'non-tourist' season can allow flora and fauna to recover from the period of high tourism demand. For local residents, the period without tourists allows them to have a 'normal' life for part of the year. Under these circumstances, some services may be stopped or reduced due to the lack of demand caused by the reduced number of tourists. Efforts to reduce seasonality have been introduced in many tourism destinations, including extending the main tourist season or establishing other seasons based on different attractions, diversifying and expanding markets, creating off-season tourism attractions, such as festivals and special events, and providing financial incentives such as different taxes and prices. Events are a strategic tool to help combat seasonality; they can change the temporal imbalance and help tourism destinations overcome seasonality because they attract visitors, thereby helping to expand the economic impact of tourism (Connell et al., 2015). Another way to reduce seasonality is for the public sector to organize holidays in a more spread-out manner throughout the year, which would provide a higher year-round flow of domestic tourism to the destination.