Yet more research added
Two more piece of research have belatedly been added to the research and statistics library:
1. Activity Holidays: Are they the key to growth on the English Coast? (2017). Commissioned by the National Coastal Tourism Academy to understand more about this potential opportunity and to help businesses and destinations understand what they can do to attract more of the activity market to the coast: https://britishdestinations.net/1194-2/content/activity-holidays-are-they-the-key-to-growth-on-the-English-coast-2017/
Although commission by NCTA for England it has obvious resonance for the UK coasts in general and there is some relevance for non-coastal destinations that have the environment to cater for activity holidays.
2. And one that slipped under the radar when first released in mid-December 2016 a report from the ONS Tourism Intelligence Unit: Workers in the tourism sector: examining their private pension savings, Great Britain, July 2012 to June 2014 (2016).
The ONS report indicates that 69% of tourism workers in Britain don’t have private pension savings, a high figure particularly when compared across 10 major sectors. This should be of major strategic concern as we wrestle nationally with tourism skills and employment issues in preparation for a post-Brexit world. It’s an excellent short report that is well worth scanning, if not reading in full. It also contains some really useful tourism employment statistics around other characteristics of the industry and not simply pensions.
To my mind the report begs a much bigger and as yet unanswered question, “why the gap”. It is also based on historic data sets. What will be more telling is any future comparative analysis that TIU may do to cover the more recent period that includes the introduction of the Work Place Pension and the subsequent roll out of auto enrolment. One would expect the percentage of workers with private pensions in all industries to increase but will the potentially worrying gap in pension saving in tourism, as compared to other industries, have closed or are there other inherent reasons (positive or negative) for apparent failure of over two thirds of tourism workers to save for their retirement? https://britishdestinations.net/1194-2/content/workers-in-the-tourism-sector-examining-their-private-pension-savings-great-britain-july-2012-to-june-2014-2016/
British Destinations 