Tourism seasonality Essay

This phenomenon is referred to as seasonality, and is regarded as one of the most visible characteristics of modern tourism (Bigovi, 2011, 16).Stated in simple terms, tourism seasonality represents a special kind of dependence and is often seen as a major problem that this industry has to face (FernndezMorales, 2003, 942). Although there is no generally accepted definitionof seasonality in tourism (KoenigLewis & Bischoff, 2005), it could be said that there have been numerous attempts to define the seasonal concept in the tourism industry. For instance, Biedermann (2008, 41) stated that seasonality is a prevalent characteristic in travel and tourism marked by sharp variations in demand depending on the time of the year. Then, Wall and Mathieson (2006, 57) argued that most destination areas experience an annual cycle of activity with a peak season and an offseason which are separated by two shoulder seasons. Seasonality may also be defined as a temporal imbalance in the phenomenon of tourism, which may be expressed in terms of dimensions of such elements as numbers of visitors and their expenditure, traffic on roads and other forms of transportation, employment, and admissions to attractions (Butler, 1994). According to Allcock (1989), the most significant aspect of seasonality is that which involves the concentration of tourist flows in relatively short periods of the year.
Seasonality has been widely considered as a physiological feature of tourism, and it has been taken for granted as an inevitable characteristic of this economic sector of activities (Allcock, 1989). Notwithstanding, seasonality is a phenomenon that has received much attention in the tourism related literature over several decades. Seasonality in essence, brings to the limelight a number of critical issues that call for special attention. It particularly affects the number of tourists to a region and therefore can threaten the viability of tourismrelated businesses in a region.
From earlier publications, it has been observed that tourism is not the only economic activity characterized by temporal variation. Seasonal, cyclical and periodic variations are prevalent to production and consumption across a wide range of other economic activities such as agriculture and manufacturing(Kusnets, 1933 Bar On, 1975, Hylleberg, 1992). Moreover, seasonality characterizes aspects of human activities in many manifestations, e.g. in sports fixtures (Higham and Hinch, 2002) or recreational activity (Hartmann, 1986 Butler, 1994). In statistical terms, seasonal variation is viewed to be different from irregular or random influences on economic performance (Hirschey, 1993) such as those resulting from natural disaster, wars, epidemics, political instability (Bar On, 1975). The term seasonality basically denotes a description for what Moore (1989, p.49) summarizes as movements in a time series during a particular time of year that recur similarly each year. Hylleberg (1992, p.4) not only calls attention to a definition of seasonality, but also includes the main causes of this phenomenon seasonality is the systematic, although not necessary regular, intrayear movement caused by changes in weather, the calendar, and timing of decisions, directly or indirectly through the production and consumption decisions made by agents of the economy.