Introduction
Seasonality is defined as a temporal imbalance in tourism. This imbalance can be expressed in the form of dimensions of aspects such as the population of visitors, visitor’s expenditure, traffic on highways as well as other modes of transportation, employment and the number of admissions to attraction destinations. Generally, it is mostly viewed that seasonality is a problem limiting the economic returns which can be acquired from tourism and also prevents the optimal financial gains that may be obtained suppose a destination is capable of attracting tourists throughout the year (Turrión-Prats & Duro, 2018). From an economic perspective, and specifically the view of tourism operators as well as companies, the perfect situation would be an equivalent number of visitations throughout the year, thus permitting the optimal use of physical infrastructure, employee retention on a full-time basis for the whole year and therefore, maximum prices will be acquired. In day-to-day activities, most tourist businesses are capable of operation at capacity for just some months in a year, and with only one or two months of peak seasons. Tourism businesses mostly experience shorter peaks in formal holidays like Easter and Christmas. Seasonality is a complex phenomenon which exceeds just the annual climatic variation, and therefore actions tourist businesses have seen the need of addressing the major causes of seasonality as well as the reasons of it being a permanent trait of tourism. A strong desire has developed among tourist businesses to make sure destinations get a year-round tourism industry instead of a small season activity (Pegg, Patterson, & Gariddo, 2012). Many have attempted to achieve this goal, but only a few have managed to achieve it. This paper will discuss the major causes and impacts of seasonality. It will also demonstrate seasonal tourism demand in the Alpine region, Australia, and how this destination is addressing seasonality.
Major causes of seasonality
One of the significant causes of seasonality is the earth’s movement around the sun. In this sense, seasonality can be intensified or diminished by the earth’s inclination towards the sun. Seasonality with regards to the four conventional seasons, including winter, spring, autumn, and summer, is reflected in fluctuating amounts of hours of daylight, cloud cover, rainfall, temperature, and sunshine (Pegg et al., 2012). These aspects tend to have significant influence and controlling the growing season for all sorts of plants as well as wildlife breeding. Essentially, these seasons control and significantly influence human existence and their day-to-day activities, for instance, in fishing and agricultural communities. All these factors are termed as natural causes of seasonality.
Humans’ behavior also influences seasonality. Humans have progressively imposed their behavioral patterns which include temporal limits on human activities. These behavioral patterns are formed by human social, religious, economic as well as political institutions. The earliest types of seasonality are the religious Holy Days which were meant for celebrating events in diverse religious calendars like Ramadan, Christmas, Passover, and Saints’ day (Pegg et al., 2012). Travel like pilgrimages is another form of seasonality in tourism and was preceded by feasts as well as markets at certain times of the year to signify agricultural timetables in various places.
Education is also another major cause of seasonality. The introduction of education in the 19th century, school holidays were set to enable children to get time to help with harvesting crops. Such leisure periods have become strongly established in several countries. It is perceived that the traditional summer school holiday period is the primary institutional cause of seasonality in tourism (Pegg et al., 2012). Students tend to go on vacations during holidays which makes it peak periods for tourist businesses. When school reopens, and students go back to school, the number of visitors visiting tourist destinations decreases, causing tourist businesses to experience a low season in their operation.
Impacts of seasonality
Seasonality has been perceived as a global issue affecting tourism businesses with the most substantial negative impact being a decline in business revenue. These negative impact is viewed from an economic viewpoint and reflects concerns with the challenges of making sure efficient use of resources is considered (Chen, Li, Wu, & Shen, 2019). Because of demand fluctuation during the off-season, tourism businesses usually are a challenging due to their over-capacity, the no use of infrastructure, reduced workforce as well as the non-attraction of investment in the course of this time. During the off-season, the tourism industry experiences a seasonal loss, and it is an inevitable negative consequence in the tourism industry.
Moreover, the demand fluctuations caused by seasonal variations gives an increasing problem for managers in the form of recruitment as well as retaining full-time employees. In off-season’s, most managers are forced to lay off some employees, leading to increased unemployment. Moreover, since managers will not be able to retain full-time employees, it will lead to frequent employment and changing of staff members. As a result, it affects the quality of services offered, which later impact the reputation of the business. It can also lead to the poor performance of the business, which can further end by closing the business (Hadwen, Arthington, Boon, Taylor, & Fellows, 2011). Seasonal unemployment is a negative consequence of seasonality, and it is commonly inferred that off-season unemployment is an involuntary state whereby seasonal workers are typically rendered, victims. This type of employment affects employees, making them worried and anxious, knowing that they can get jobless at any time. Consequentially, this affects employee performance. Seasonal fluctuations have rendered tourist businesses seasonal work which are now considered to be an inferior job opportunity because of job insecurity and the lack of opportunity to progress one’s career. This type of jobs does not attract top talents (Hadwen et al., 2011). Therefore, the industry ends up recruiting low talents. This has given managers a difficult time and wastes a lot of time in searching for new employees to hire at the start of every ski season.
Additionally, during peak seasons, saturation levels, as well as overcrowding, occurs. Majority of the tourist destinations incur an increase in the number of tourist visits during high season resulting in the overutilization of infrastructure as well as overwhelming demand for services. As a result, more employees are required, and they usually lack adequate skills or have no vital qualification at all (Hadwen et al., 2011). This can lead to declined quality service as well as attentiveness to detail. Such reduced standards affect not only tourists but also the residents who take up the burden of paying this social cost of the peaking challenge. Some destinations also incur resentment as well as antipathy to their operations and tourists. There is efficient evidence to imply that natural or cultural attractions are prone to be negatively impacted by seasonal fluctuations and is likely to be replaced by man-made attraction. Therefore, a robust anti-tourism feeling has emerged in several local communities; this has made more latent the differentiation between residents and tourists.
There has also been controversy about environmental impacts of seasonality, emphasizing on extreme pressure on more fragile environments due to overcrowding as well the excess usage of resources during peak seasons. The overuse of natural resources has led to environmental degradation. For instance, Alpine destination has now been declared as a threatened wilderness with its snow-based recreational activities deemed to be the core cause of this crisis (Hadwen et al., 2011). The main hindrance of the future advancement of ski market is due to the increasing environmental concerns regarding traffic congestion as well as damages caused to the mountainous areas through the over usage of natural resources by skiers and also snowboarders. Also, global warming has turned out to be a big challenge for several ski operators who have begun acknowledging their susceptibility to recent climate change. Shorter, warmer winters infer that there is minimal natural snow as well as possible few months of operation by the seasonal ski businesses.
Assessments have been undertaken on climate change impact of ski areas in North America, Europe, and Australia. These assessments have confirmed the negative consequences arising from the industry. Essentially, in the 1980s, there was a lack of snow in these areas, which left a significant impact on the tourism industry. Suppose this assumption is valid, the current ski operators that rely on snow will drop from 85% to 44% (Hadwen et al., 2011).
The alpine region, Australia seasonal tourism demand
The alpine resorts industry is situated in three neighboring states in Australia; Tasmania, New South Wales, and Victoria. Alpine is a vital part of the tourism industry in Australia and offers a lot of benefits both to the resort and the neighboring town, whereby many now depend heavily on this industry for employment as well as business opportunities. The sector offers substantial work mostly for young people. It also supports the support of several specialist businesses providing clothing and for various alpine activities. This region is significantly affected by seasonal fluctuations. During peak season, the alpine gets several visitors, and during the off-season the number of visitors significantly reduce. It is found that New South Wale alpine resorts benefit the state with about $812 million for the gross product as well as 10,458 employment opportunities during peak seasons of summer and winter (Winkler, 2019). Whereas for Victoria state benefited $505 million for state product as well as 6,570 employment opportunities. Tasmania benefited $1,319 million gross state product as well as 17,050 job opportunities during peak seasons of summer and winter.
It is estimated that the number of visitors to alpine regions is 3.1 million during peak seasons, especially snow sports season. The regions recorded about 2.1 million skier visitors during high seasons while during the off-season, they receive visitors about 1 million skier visitors. Mostly 57% of the visitors go to New South Wales resorts, and 43% of the visitors go to Victorian and Tasmania resorts. During snow season, this region receives an increment of about 15% visitors. Resorts in this region receive an average of 1.5% overseas visitors. In essence, the rate of visitors in this region during snow sports season tends to vary a lot from one season to another relying significantly on snow conditions (Pegg et al., 2012). During off-peak season, this region receives a small population of visitors, and during high seasons, they receive a large number of visitors. In off-peak seasons, some employees are laid off, and when it approaches peak season, more employees are recruited. The demand is undoubtedly high during peak seasons, thus leading to overutilization of resources and facilities. While during off-peak seasons, facilities are underutilized. This creates the dead of balancing demand that is caused by fluctuating seasons.
Alpine region Destination Marketing Organization
Destination Marketing Store is an Australian Destination Marketing Organization for the alpine region. It is tasked with destination branding, destination experience development, strategic tourism planning, and marketing. With regards to the issue of seasonality, Destination Marketing Store has considered seasonality a matter of concern that requires immediate attention. Therefore, it has taken some measures to address this problem. From a marketing viewpoint that Destination Marketing Store has implemented is special affordable price offers granted to prospective tourist in the course of off-peak seasons (Cocolas, Walters, & Ruhanen, 2016). Special pricing is a motivational factor that appears to be tactical in attracting visitors during off-peak seasons. Destination Marketing Store is providing discounted prices in the course of off-peak seasons then offer high prices during peak seasons. These two pricing strategies have specific target markets. For example, Destination Marketing Store provides special lower rates during off-peak seasons targeting retired people since tend to be more likely in gaining interest in special price during the off-peak season because they have enough free time when compared to students and business people.
Alternatively, Destination Marketing Store is currently targeting individuals who get time to spend their holiday in peak-season since they have a tendency of buying tickets even when prices are high. This pricing differentiation assists in increasing demand in the course of the off-peak season and shifts a small demand from a high season to a low season. Destination Marketing Store has tactfully applied this pricing differentiation to minimize the traditional seasonal fluctuations but not necessarily to maximize profits (Klimek & Doctor, 2018). The main motive is to reduce seasonality which will, in turn, improve customer satisfaction throughout the year, as well as to increase the usage level of facilities and infrastructures more proficiently in peak and off-peak seasons. Thus, Destination Marketing Store has prioritized this price differentiation strategy by ensuring that it remains different from a multiple-use strategy of which the main motive is creating demand during off-peak seasons without impacting peak seasons.
Conclusion
To sum it all,seasonality has a significant impact on the tourism industry. Seasonality creates an imbalance of tourism demand based on seasons. It is mostly viewed that seasonality is a problem limiting the economic returns which can be acquired from tourism and also prevents the optimal economic gains that may be obtained suppose a destination is capable of attracting tourists throughout the year. Due to seasonality, tourist destination experiences a lot of challenges, such as the inability to ensure employee retention, overcrowding, and overutilization of resources. Major causes of seasonality are categorized into natural causes such as fluctuating amounts of hours of daylight, cloud cover, rainfall, temperature, and sunshine. Institutional factors, such as education. The alpine region in Australia is a tourist destination is also affected by seasonality. The fluctuation of seasons has also caused adverse impacts on alpine region. To address the problem of seasonality, Destination Marketing Store has resorted to offering special prices and even price differentiation strategy. This strategy is aimed at creating a demand balance between peak seasons and off-peak seasons so that it would promote equal use of resources and facilities.