Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
where there are shortages of such human capital. The second rank consists of
intermediate posts such as tour guides and agency representatives, where the ability to
speak the language of international tourists, and even to share their nationality (if only for
the purpose of consumer reassurance), is considered critical. Finally, the third level of the
hierarchy comprises unskilled labour which is relatively common, given low entry
thresholds to most tourist jobs. The pay and working conditions of each of these three
ranks in the hierarchy is likely to be varied, as are the national origins of each stream of
migrants. For example, although research is somewhat limited, there is evidence to
suggest that in the Pacific Islands, core positions are often taken by expatriate workers
while 'peripheral' positions are taken by indigenous employees (Minerbi 1992).
The significance of migration in tourism labour markets therefore stems from three
main features (Williams and Hall 2000). First, it serves to fill absolute shortages of
labour, particularly in areas of rapid tourism expansion or where tourism is highly
spatially polarised. However, the first two levels of the migration hierarchy may also
function to fill particular employment niches, even where there are no generalised labour
shortages. Second, the availability of migrant labour will help to reduce labour market
pressures, and consequently wage inflation pressures. Third, labour migration can
contribute to labour market segmentation, and especially where the divisions are along
racial/ ethnic or legal/illegal lines, this can serve to reduce the costs of labour to firms.
Labour migration therefore serves to ensure that the process of tourism capital
accumulation is not undermined. Nevertheless, labour migration also has two other
significant functions with respect to tourism. The first of these is the generation of visits
to friends and visitors. Second, labour migration experiences do help to define the search
spaces of lifestyle and retirement migrants, as King et al. (1998) have shown with respect
to retirement from the UK to southern Europe (Williams and Hall 2002).
Thus to understand some of these components of the tourism production system the
geographer is required to appreciate concepts related to capital-labour relations, the
interweaving of consumption, the business environment associated with the competitive
strategies of enterprises, economic concepts (e.g. transaction analysis), product
differentiation, international business as a mode of operation and global markets, along
with basic business and marketing concepts. Within a capitalist mode of production this
is essential so that one may understand how each component in the tourism production
system operates (i.e. how it develops products, generates profits and competes with other
businesses) and how social groups and places are incorporated into the production
system, so that the production system and the spatial relationships which exist may be
fully understood (see insight below). To illustrate these ideas, the example of
international hotel chains is used to examine relationships between the geography of
supply, functions, the industrial structure of the business and the social relations which
exist.
INSIGHT: Economic globalisation
Globalisation is a complex, chaotic, multiscalar, multitemporal and multicentric series of
processes operating in specific structural and spatial contexts (Jessop 1999; Amin 2002).
Globalisation should be seen as an emergent, evolutionary phenomenon which results
from economic, political, socio-cultural and technological processes on many scales
rather than a distinctive causal mechanism in its own right It is both a structural and a
