Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Tourism in Europe: a new model

Malin Ackholt, Kerstin Howald and Pilar Rato 25th May 2021

Rebuilding tourism is a priority but the sector must become more sustainable and resilient, with workers and quality jobs at the heart of recovery.

tourism,recovery,EFFAT
Malin Ackholt

Tourism is one of the world’s most important industries. It employs one in every ten on earth and provides livelihoods for hundreds of millions more. As the world’s leading tourism destination, Europe is no exception: the sector gives work to over 13 million people.

The Covid-19 pandemic has however plunged tourism into paralysis, inflicting tremendous hardships on the European tourism workforce. Virtually no one is working as usual. Workers on temporary or zero-hours contracts and the bogus self-employed in the ‘gig’ economy have been among the worst hit, as many government income-support measures have not provided them with adequate cover. Thousands of companies are struggling to survive and more than six million workers in Europe are estimated to have lost their jobs or gone into job-retention schemes.

tourism,recovery,EFFAT
Kerstin Howald

The crisis has also had a dramatic knock-on effect on jobs in the food-supply chain, which is intrinsic to the functioning of hospitality. The International Labour Organization estimates that every job in hospitality supports 1.5 elsewhere.

Many skilled workers are leaving the industry, which risks emerging from the shutdown only to face the challenge of inadequate staffing. In France alone, nearly 100,000 employees are expected to be missing when business reopens. In the United Kingdom, one in ten hospitality workers are believed to have left in the last year. In countries, such as Spain, which rely extensively on tourism, temporary employment schemes have helped avert massive job destruction.


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

Pilar Rato 1
Pilar Rato

Not only is the economic capacity of tourism shaky. With a high proportion of its workforce young (13 per cent), foreign (15.6 per cent) and/or female (59 per cent), the social role tourism plays in accompanying young people into the labour market, integrating migrant workers and enhancing gender equality has also been put on hold.

Opportunity to reconsider

This moment provides an opportunity to reconsider the European tourism policy we want. On the basis of a radical and ambitious stimulus plan for the European economy, policy-makers—in concert with sector stakeholders—must drive investment into sustainable growth channels for tourism, marking out Europe as a safe, resilient destination which benefits communities, visitors and tourism workers.

The European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions values highly the capacity of many actors in the supply chain to come together and speak with one voice—on short-term measures to get out of the crisis and on long-term visions to build a resilient sector. Through social dialogue, EFFAT has teamed up with social partners and committed stakeholders, to call for measures to stabilise the sector and put it on a path towards sustainable recovery.

We have sought to retain as many jobs as possible. From that stems our demand to extend all emergency measures, such as short-time work and wage-compensation schemes, as long as needed, ensuring fair allowances for all workers—including seasonal and temporary workers and others in non-standard employment, whether part-time, zero-hours or in a subcontracting chain.

EFFAT has asked EU member states to place hospitality tourism at the heart of their National Recovery and Resilience Programmes—to secure maximum jobs, support the sector and strive for swift, co-ordinated and safe travel. We call on the European Commission to assess these plans not just with an administrative mindset but with a strategic, 360-degree view, which recognises the recovery of tourism as functional to the revival of other sectors (including agriculture, food and beverages) and the economy at large.

Strong and responsible

Looking to the future, EFFAT is very clear about its vision for the relaunch of tourism—a renewed, strong and responsible model, which has learnt from the weaknesses brought to light by Covid-19 and which places workers at its core.

While for a long time travel and tourism have pursued indefinite growth—globally as well as in Europe—they have mainly relied on an economic model based on short-term financial interests and profit maximisation. Hence a focus on minimum costs, with little investment in the workforce and increasingly precarious employment.

In many places, unsustainable tourism has resulted in destruction of natural habitats. Tourism is a significant contributor to global CO2 emissions and consequently to global heating. And marketing accommodation via platforms—often unregulated—has made competition increasingly unfair, exacerbated housing shortages in urban centres and contributed to ‘overtourism’.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

This is a lethal cocktail which has undermined a quick recovery of European tourism from the pandemic. Its relaunch cannot be based on the paradigms of the past. The goal should be a threefold sustainability: economic, environmental and social—including greater attention to the stability and quality of employment.

Valuing workers

We must strive for a new model based on decent and secure employment, investment in human resources and reinvestment of profits, to ensure sustainable growth, visitor loyalty, diversification of the offer and a reduction of seasonality. We should promote proximity-based and domestic tourism—especially in countries, regions and cities where the sector upholds many jobs and businesses, offering a principal avenue for recovery, allied to lower environmental impact and support for communities and workers.

Companies should be assisted but on conditional and reciprocal terms, where workers are valued. Any financial support—state aid, loans or tax exemptions—should only be granted to businesses which play by the rules, pay their fair share to society and respect labour standards.

And tourism should be socially sustainable. All classification and certifications, such as stars and eco-labels, must take the quality of employment into account. Social labelling campaigns, such as Fair Hotels and Restaurants, should be developed and promoted in all EU member states, ensuring customers can choose establishments by reference to such criteria as decent working conditions and respect for workers’ rights.

Domino effect

With vaccination programmes rolling forward, the proposed EU Digital Green Certificate will hopefully pave the way towards a smooth and safe reopening of European travel and tourism in the summer. But all sectoral actors should reflect on the domino effect of this devastating crisis and glimpse ways to build resilience.

As EFFAT underlined before the Social Summit in Porto, tourism needs a co-ordinated EU relaunch. Given its importance to the European economy and potential social and environmental contributions, the sector should become a shared competence of the EU. The aim should be to ensure a resilient and sustainable European tourism which values, protects and retains its most precious resource—its workers.

Malin Ackholt
Malin Ackholt

Malin Ackholt is president of the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions and of the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union, HRF.

Kerstin Howald 1
Kerstin Howald

Kerstin Howald is tourism-sector secretary at EFFAT.

Pilar Rato 1
Pilar Rato

Pilar Rato is international secretary of the Service Federation of Comisiones Obrera (CCOO Servicios) in Spain and president of the EFFAT tourism sector.

You are here: Home / Economy / Tourism in Europe: a new model

Most Popular Posts

European civil war,iron curtain,NATO,Ukraine,Gorbachev The new European civil warGuido Montani
Visentini,ITUC,Qatar,Fight Impunity,50,000 Visentini, ‘Fight Impunity’, the ITUC and QatarFrank Hoffer
Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse

Most Recent Posts

HMPs,CMR,hazardous medicinal products,carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic,health workers Protecting health workers from hazardous productsIan Lindsley, Tony Musu and Adam Rogalewski
geopolitical,Europe Options for Europe’s ‘geopolitical’ futureJon Bloomfield
democracy,democratic Reviving democracy in a fragmented EuropeSusanne Wixforth and Kaoutar Haddouti
EU social agenda,social investment,social protection EU social agenda beyond 2024—no time to wasteFrank Vandenbroucke
pension reform,Germany,Lindner Pension reform in Germany—a market solution?Fabian Mushövel and Nicholas Barr

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Discover the new FEPS Progressive Yearbook and what 2023 has in store for us!

The Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2022, delivering insightful future-oriented analysis for the new year. It counts on renowned authors' contributions, including academics, politicians and analysts. This fourth edition is published in a time of war and, therefore, it mostly looks at the conflict itself, the actors involved and the implications for Europe.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has been analysing the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the EU Social Imbalances Procedure and Open Strategic Autonomy paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube