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Social and Political perspectives of tourism 07089721 Onni Hukka conference

Social and Political perspectives of tourism 07089721 Onni Hukka conference
Author: Onni Hukka
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. The basic requirement for a holiday is of course disposable income and leisure time both in the case of a holiday abroad or in a domestic resort. This can be seen to a dividing line in separating people who do take holidays and who do not. Holiday has become such an important factor in our lives that numerous studies have been carried out in the field. These studies include our habits of travel and what affect them. More recently studies have started to take in to affect the psychological and sociological impacts of holidays in to our day to day lives. According to Hazel (2005) the British spent over £40 billion on holidays in 2001. This is a huge amount of money and can be divided in a manner that this would mean two holidays per year. It has to be noted that the figure of expenditure is even more staggering when considering the fact that it has been reported by Hazel (2005) that a whopping 40% of the British stated that they did not leave their home during their holiday at all. Some of these can be explained by the simple fact that some people just do not prefer to travel. However most of the percentage is due to the groups that are unable to have a holiday. These people include the low income families, single parent families and socially isolated people. (
Holiday trips are a big part of how people spend their leisure time. It has been stated that the British spend over £40 billion on holidays yearly and the figure is growing. The average household takes an average of 2 trips/ year, either to a foreign or to a domestic destination. The capability to go on a holiday has been seen as a good way for keeping up mental health and help in motivation for working. The holidays have become such a huge part of human right some researchers see holidays as a human right. One must note that holidays are not available for everyone. Many social groups are left wanting when it comes to the holiday experience. it has to be said that the concept of holidays as a solution for socio economic problems faced by today's society is at best at the experimental stages. Some evidence supports the idea of holidays having a positive impact on lower income groups when looking at possibilities for creating a sense of unity with upper social groups. Effects of holidays on youths that come from lower income families have also been speculated to be positive. The idea is to make the youths feel like they aren't social outcasts via sending them on government paid holidays. The idea of social tourism is to create possibilities for mental wellbeing for lower income classes. It is speculated that going on a holiday is a human right rather than a luxury. This is however a concept that has not been thoroughly weighed and has several problems. In order to create government sponsored holiday program for the low income group some serious investment is required. Currently holidays cannot be seen as a feasible mean to bring social benefits to those less fortunate. There are studies that have found that holidays have positive psychological advantages to the human psyche, but no real studies have been conducted on the effects of government sponsored holidays on the lower income classes. This effectively means that all evidence that is being put forward is purely anecdotal and should not be the basis of any real decision making in the matter. In conclusion the idea of sponsoring holidays for the lower income groups is not a very feasible one. The main problems are to whom we should sponsor the holidays for, are there any actual social benefits gained from this and how should we fund the program.

Bibliography

Davidson R (1992) 'Tourism for all: social tourism in Europe' in Davidson R (Ed) Tourism in Europe London, Pitman
Haukeland J (1990) 'Non-travellers: the flip side of motivation' in Annals of tourism research 17, 2, 172-84
Haulot A (1981) 'Social tourism' in International journal of tourism management 2, 3, 207-212
Hazel N (2005) 'Holidays for children and families in need: an exploration of the research and policy context for social tourism in the UK' in Children and society 19, 3, 225-236