Abstract
Social tourism initiatives often have economic as well as objectives, particularly national schemes such as the Spanish IMSERSO programme, designed to stimulate off-season tourism in mass coastal tourism destinations. Yet, there is little evidence of how such schemes responded to crises or that explores the effects on the tourism industry actors responsible for programme delivery. This article applies a relational political economy approach to assess the contested discourses surrounding the governance of the scheme. We examine the evolution of the IMSERSO programme longitudinally following the global financial crisis and up until the COVID-19 pandemic to assess the relational dynamics at play social tourism governance on destination stakeholders, outlining implications for social tourism policies internationally.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 103640 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Annals of Tourism Research |
Volume | 102 |
Early online date | 10 Aug 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the British Academy [SRG18R1\180504]
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
Keywords
- Governance discourse
- IMSERSO
- Political economy
- Social tourism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business and International Management
- Development
- Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management
- Marketing