Is the all-inclusive tourism model still relevant?
Employees in tourism, particularly the least advantaged, experience poor or even illegal working conditions, including low wages, unequal opportunities (for training and for participation in decision-making) and greater vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.
The high numbers in casual, temporary, seasonal and part-time employment face insecurity, comparatively low pay, job instability, and restricted opportunities for promotion.
Women are often forced to accept unequal pay together with insufficient maternity protection, social security and family leave. At the same time, tourism is often seasonal, causing fluctuations in tourist numbers and hence in employment, and may be adversely affected by crises, including political upheaval, economic downturns and natural disasters.
All inclusive holidays began over 50 years ago with Club Med in Corfu. Today, all-inclusive holidays attract millions of holidaymakers to custom-built tourist resorts around the world, where they pay in advance for everything they need.
More and more hotels and tour operators are embracing the all-inclusive model and, according to market research company Mintel, the sector has grown by over 25 per cent over the past five years, with mid and long-haul travel driving the market.
The guarantee of a fixed budget is understandable – tourists know they are guaranteed a manageable price, operators have more control over the end product, and hotels can increase their efficiency and predictability of demand. However, as previous research by Tourism Concern has clearly demonstrated, the implications for other local businesses, the destination economy, and the tourist experience raise serious questions about the sustainability and ethics of this model of tourism.
Tourism Concern has long argued that local people see limited economic benefit.
All-inclusives are self-sufficient resorts complete with bars, restaurants and entertainment and hence their guests have little incentive to go anywhere else in the country, hire local guides, eat in local restaurants or pay entry fees to local attractions.
All-inclusive resorts undoubtedly create significant numbers of new jobs, but serious questions remain about whether, with margins pushed down throughout the supply chain and hotels hence being paid very little for each room, there is enough left to provide decent work to their staff.
Tourism Concern’s 2004 report Labour Standards, Social Responsibility And Tourism, presented the findings of research which had examined labour conditions in mainstream hotels in five different popular destinations. It exposed failures to recognise workers’ rights to join a trade union; lack of training; workers being pressurised into unpaid overtime; and workers not earning a living wage.
Staff in all types of hotel are faced with low wages and a range of unfavourable working conditions, from working hours which disrupt home life through to stress and exposure to risk.
Workers in all-inclusive hotels face even less favourable working conditions. Amongst our respondents a greater number were on short-term contracts which offer fewer benefits and less job security.
Prolonged contact with guests is more likely in all-inclusives, which can be stressful. All-inclusive hotel staff receive significantly less in tips meaning that their overall remuneration is lower. Concerns about unpaid overtime are also greater.
There is some evidence of progress since Tourism Concern’s published research in 2004. This has come about in part as a consequence of union representation and effective collective bargaining, including in a context of broader social dialogue and the enforcement of appropriate legislation.
Tourism Concern is a United Kingdom organisation that campaigns to reduce social and environmental problems connected to tourism.