Is Social Tourism a Vector for Destination Resilience to External Shocks? Evidence From Spain

Antonio Fernández-Morales, Scott McCabe*, José David Cisneros-Martínez

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Unpredictable external shocks exacerbate the negative effects usually attributed to cyclical seasonality. Two such recent shocks, the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, shifted debates from crisis management toward concerns for greater resilience in visitor economies. Social tourism is an effective stimulus to destination economies and ameliorates some negative effects of seasonality, but there is little evidence on its contributions to greater destination resilience. Furthermore, resilience, a relatively new concept, is poorly defined. We establish a conceptual link between seasonality and resilience through a holistic multivariate analysis of supply, demand and employment patterns. An empirical study examines resilience longitudinally using municipal-level data, applying multivariate analysis and innovative visualization techniques, and assesses how, where and to what degree the Imserso social tourism program has contributed to the greater resilience of Spanish destinations, demonstrating its effectiveness in contributing to resilience in those which are more vulnerable due to high seasonal imbalances.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-20
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Travel Research
Early online date5 Oct 2023
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 5 Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the British Academy [SGR18R1\180504].

Keywords

  • destination resilience
  • seasonality
  • social tourism
  • Imserso
  • Gini index
  • multivariate statistical techniques

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Is Social Tourism a Vector for Destination Resilience to External Shocks? Evidence From Spain'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this