The impact of social tourism for seniors on the economic development of tourism destinations

Abstract

This paper suggests a framework for assessing the economic relevance of social tourism programmes for tourism destinations, based on two simultaneous approaches: an analysis of the stakeholders’ perceptions of the economic impacts and a quantitative assessment of the impacts on the national economy. This framework was applied to a Portuguese social tourism programme directed at the senior market. A survey of supply agents (N=220) was carried out to analyse the stakeholders’ perceptions of the Programme impacts. An integrated model, including a senior survey (N=1000) and an input-output model, was used to estimate the total economic impact of the Programme on output, household income, employment and Value-added. The supply agents surveyed perceived considerable positive impacts of the Programme on their companies regarding profitability, employment, occupancy rate in the low season, loyalty and attraction of new consumers. They also perceived important positive impacts on local communities regarding decrease of seasonality, diversification and revitalization of local economy. The quantitative assessment also revealed high total economic impacts (direct, indirect and induced) of the Programme on the national economy. Finally, some suggestions to maximize the economic benefits of social tourism programmes for tourism destinations are presented.