New Trends in the Growth of Tourism Employment in the UK in the 1990s

Barry Thomas and Alan Townsend
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Barry Thomas: Barry Thomas is a Reader at the University of Durham Business School, Mill Hill Lane, Durham DH1 3LB, UK. Tel: +191 374 4767. Fax: +191 374 3748
Alan Townsend: Professor Townsend is in the Department of Geography, University of Durham, Science Site, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

Tourism Economics, 2001, vol. 7, issue 3, 295-310

Abstract: New evidence on tourism employment in the UK in the 1990s shows major departures from patterns of change of the 1980s and from other sectors in the 1990s. In the 1990s the tourism sector no longer seemed to exhibit the exceptionally rapid growth that had been almost an article of faith for those who build economic development strategies around tourism. The growth in the number of tourism-related employees became little different from the growth of employment in general, but there was significant redistribution across types of work and sub-regions. Tourism still has the highest proportion of part-time workers but, in marked contrast to many other sectors, it has now tended to move away from part-time employment. There is, however, heavy differentiation of experience across areas, and London, which dominates in absolute terms, departs radically from the general tourism pattern: it has high growth and a marked move towards part-timers. These surprising findings have implications for debates on the quality of jobs in tourism and on the role of tourism in economic development.

Date: 2001
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:7:y:2001:i:3:p:295-310

DOI: 10.5367/000000001101297883

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