Work and death in tourism
Chapter 7
Work and death in tourism
From darkness to voyeurism
Despite the seductive impression created by Hollywood films, television, and popular periodicals, working in the tourist economy usually means earning low wages, receiving few benefits, and tolerating unpredictable work schedules and stressful working conditions.
(Robert Parker ‘Las Vegas: Casino Gambling and Local Culture’,
in D.R. Judd and S.S. Fainstein, The Tourist City (New Haven,
Yale University Press, 1999), p. 119)
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Arbeit Macht Frei (‘Work makes one free’)
(Sign over gate to Auschwitz former concentration camp)
In the previous chapter we examined sex tourism as an aspect of tourism as transgression. What is discovered is a form of tourism which appears to be driven by the same dynamic as tourism in general and which has become interwoven as a consequence with what might be said to be the ‘mainstream’. This also reinforces the point that a significant part of tourism exists in the margins, or in those liminal spaces as Ryan and Hall would describe them. The dilemma this creates for state regulation is manifold. To the extent that such forms of tourism constitute the ‘negation’ of tourism and offend certain values they cannot be allowed to flourish unchecked. On the other hand, as they are driven by the same forces that have allowed global capital to thrive, over-regulation may create other forms of discomfort for those with economic power. The solution has been in reconstructing the problem of sex tourism around child protection, a less contested concern. The consequence has thus also been to leave a considerable amount of sex tourism in the darkness of quasi-regulation.
In this chapter we pursue this theme of how tourism deals with transgression around two areas that may not immediately seem related: work and death. While those that work in the tourism industry occupy a central role (perhaps leaving aside the role of the sex worker) in terms of supporting tourism, it is often in their working conditions, wages and status that one can find issues of liminality. It is also as a consequence of some other marginal status that people come to work in tourism, such as being a migrant worker or a refugee. Thus issues of regulation and justice are often to the fore for those that work in tourism. In the case of death tourism (and we include for present purposes illness in this category) the liminal space is one suggested by either travel for medical intervention or suicide, or a fascination with the macabre, as sites where death has occurred. To some extent the death or medical tourist exists in a darkness for the notion of what tourism might be for such pursuits conflicts with the idea that tourism is about leisure and relaxation. For those who travel to see ‘sites of death’, it is in this form of voyeurism that one finds a darkness that also potentially negates what tourism might be in a more exalted state. For the state and the law, the issue of how to regulate these areas presents many dilemmas and challenges.
Regulating tourism work
Tourism is often presented as a significant contributor not only to national economies but also to employment. In this way it is promoted by governments as one means to address unemployment, poverty and inequality. Thus article 5(1) and (2) of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism proclaims:
(1) Local populations should be associated with tourism activities and share equitably in the economic, social and cultural benefits they generate, and particularly in the creation of direct and indirect jobs resulting from them.
(2) Tourism policies should be applied in such a way as to help to raise the standard of living of the populations of the regions visited and meet their needs: the planning and architectural approach to and operation of tourism resorts and accommodation should aim to integrate them, to the extent possible, in the local economic and social fabric; where skills are equal, priority should be given to local manpower.
Clearly, national governments are often at pains to stress the employment-generating potential of tourism. The United Kingdom’s government tourist strategy for the 2012 Olympics and beyond begins with a reference to the tourism industry ‘being directly responsible for 1.4 million jobs, or one in every 20 people in work’.1 That same document makes the following comment on the nature of employment in tourism:
Across the UK the tourism industry sustains about 1.4 million jobs directly and more indirectly – 5 per cent of all employment in the UK. There is great variety of job type and employment levels across the UK. The restaurant industry is the largest in terms of employment, followed by pubs, bars, night clubs and hotels. It is predicted that by 2014 there will be a decrease of 19,000 in the number of those working in ‘elementary occupations’ and an increase of 41,000 in the number of managers. In London, tourism directly supports 280,000 jobs.2
The document than presents charts that indicate the number of workers in each occupation within tourism. This data indicates that approximately 880,000 people are engaged in the ‘elementary occupations’ (kitchen and catering assistants, bar staff and waiting staff), approximately 275,000 people in skilled trades (chefs and cooks) and 300,000 people in managerial roles.3 Thus a shift of 19,000 jobs out of the elementary group and a rise of 42,000 in managerial positions would have a small overall effect on the relative proportions of each group. In effect the vast majority of jobs in the sector are unskilled.
The other important data arising from the UK Tourism Strategy document is that the overall split between part-time workers and full-time workers is almost even, with the qualification that in the pubs, bars and nightclub sector part-time work is higher at 60 per cent of all positions.4 While full-time positions dominate in visitor attractions the work is seasonal.5 There are also high staff turnover rates, with over 600,000 people lost to the industry.6 Thus the overall picture is that employment in tourism is predominately in the lower-paid unskilled jobs, and is either seasonal or unstable. The UK Tourism Strategy then emphasised the need to improve managerial and customer-service skills in order to improve the prospects of retaining staff and improving the country’s attractiveness as a tourist destination:
The 2012 Games will showcase the skills of people working in these industries. We must also see the Games as an opportunity to improve the skills, retain more staff and develop a better career structure, helping those industries contribute to the UK ambition of becoming a world leader in skills by 2020.7
There is no mention here of wages or working conditions for workers in the tourism industry. Instead it is, in a similar vein to Tourism Australia’s campaign to be a domestic tourist for what was tantamount to patriotic reasons,8 a strategy which presents the employee’s role in improving her or his skill and making Britain a world leader as a national duty. It is only in the document’s discussion of how to improve the sustainability of tourism that one encounters reference to the working conditions of employees:
Improve the quality of tourism jobs – how the sector is perceived as a career choice revolves around the quality of jobs, salary levels, the pattern, length and consistency of working hours (while recognising that these match the pattern of customer demand), the ability to offer full-time, year-round jobs and long term contracts, and career opportunities.9
The Australian Government’s White Paper on tourism made similar comments. It stated that in 2001–2 there were 550,000 people or 6 per cent of the workforce employed directly in tourism.10 It then noted:
Tourism employment in Australia is characterised by a high degree of diversity, both in terms of the skills and training needed and the hours worked. The occupational profile of jobs in the tourism industry consists of a higher proportion of part-time, casual and seasonal jobs, and a higher rate of female participation than in the overall labour force. The tourism industry is dominated by small business operators and characterised by a strong seasonal component to the market, especially in alpine or beach resorts.11
The nature of the work and the needs of the tourism industry were considered to be met by the workplace laws then in place:
The Workplace Relations Act 1996 allows for more flexible workplace arrangements to facilitate Australia’s growing international competitiveness. There is considerable potential for greater use and uptake of these flexible arrangements by the tourism industry.12
The centrepiece of this legislation was individual workplace agreements which were negotiated between employer and employee, with a limited role for unions. The legislation was campaigned against by trade unions and the Australian Labor Party and was a highly unpopular law. It has now been replaced by the Fair Work Act 2009 which provides for the possibility of representation of employees by trade unions. The problem in the context of the tourism industry is whether seasonal, part-time and low-skilled workers will assert their right to representation to the fullest extent.
The official discourse thus constructs the tourism industry as an industry that generates significant amounts of employment for the population, albeit mainly in low-paid and unskilled roles. This does not lead to any real discussion of workers’ rights and conditions but creates a need for ‘flexibility’ in hours and conditions of employment.
Shaw and Williams, however, question the statistics on jobs created by tourism. They argue that there is a tendency to overestimation, particularly as what constitutes employment in the leisure industry can be blurred at times.13 They also caution against the stereotype that work in tourism is low paid and unskilled, arguing that it is as complex and heterogeneous as the rest of the industry.14 They do, however, note that there are gender divisions in the tourism industry, with women tending to be peripheral (tending to be part time) rather than core workers and performing tasks such as cleaning, serving meals and making beds.15 This, they claim, is because ‘women workers carry into the workplace their subordinate status in society at large’.16
They also mention the role of international migration in the tourism industry, noting that (at the time they wrote) there were approximately 16 million international migrants and in countries such as Luxembourg and Switzerland they made up one-third of the labour force.17 They comment that:
Most research shows that unskilled migrants tend to occupy poorly paid, insecure, unpleasant and/or boring jobs. Tourism and leisure often figure large as potential employers. The weak organization of internal labour markets in these industries tend to make them easy to enter. … Such migrants invariably tend to occupy peripheral jobs, and sometimes their illegal status serves to reinforce their insecurity. The importance of this reserve army of low-cost, unorganized industry is immense, and underpins the tourist industries of many areas, including several of the world’s major capital cities, such as London, Paris, Sydney and New York.18
While this suggests a number of inequalities, Shaw and Williams present this as nevertheless a complex area as many migrants move on to better-paid jobs or establish their own businesses, as well as providing employment and a source of income that can be sent back to their countries of origin.19
In relation to the example of Las Vegas, Parker describes it as a place where jobs in the tourism industry require little formal education and so leads to ‘underemployment’ and lower wages as a consequence.20 As a consequence tourism workers in that city have difficulty in accessing home ownership in a city where most homes are built for the upper end of the market while most jobs exist at the lower end.21 In addition most general tax revenue in Nevada is directed towards promoting and supporting tourism and tourism taxes themselves (such as the hotel-room tax) must be spent on tourism.22 Thus the state has difficulty in paying for public education. The state also has few ‘wealth’ taxes (such as inheritance, estate or gift taxes) as well as no corporate or income taxes and the low-income earners there do not tend to join unions. Nevada has a union membership of 7 per cent compared to a national average of 15 per cent.23
What all of this suggests is that workers in the tourist industry exist on the margins of the labour market to a great extent. This can be exacerbated by such factors as their gender, age or immigration status. While aspects of this marginal status may facilitate initial entry into the workforce, this does little for addressing long-term inequality. As Wonders and Michalowski suggest, the globalisation of the workforce has created particular inequalities. They cite a 1996 International Labour Organization (ILO) report which stated that ‘the feminization’ of international labour migration is ‘one of the most striking economic and social phenomena of recent times’.24 Their concern is with how this leads many women to take up sex work as their best (or only) chance of survival.25 But no doubt for other women the option will be to undertake work in the tourism industry for long hours and low rates of pay.
A recent paper produced for the ILO concerned with the connection between poverty reduction and tourism remarks that for every job created within the tourism sector, one and a half jobs are created indirectly in the economy.26 They estimate the number of tourism-related jobs as a consequence globally as 230 million, or 8 per cent of the global workforce.27 But of importance is the gender division in the industry:
Women make up between 60 and 70 per cent of the labour force in the industry. This gender dimension can be especially important: according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), empirical evidence suggests that developing countries with less gender inequality tend to have lower poverty rates. Paid work by women reduces overall poverty and inequality. In fact, eliminating barriers to women’s participation in paid work (as is typical of the tourism industry) has a much stronger effect on poverty and economic growth than ending wage discrimination.28
The various inequalities generated by the nature of work in tourism is no doubt a motivating factor in the concern expressed in the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism article concerned with the rights of workers (and entrepreneurs) in the tourism industry.29 That article provides that the ‘fundamental rights of salaried and self-employed workers in the tourism industry’ are to be ‘guaranteed’ under national and local laws, ‘given the specific constraints linked in particular to the seasonality of their activity, the global dimension of their industry and the flexibility often required of them by the nature of their work’.30