Speakers
Description
Large cities such as Berlin, Munich and Hamburg are the top German tourist destinations in absolute numbers, with over 26, 16 and 14 million overnight stays respectively in 2022 (INKAR, 2024). However, in terms of relative numbers, the sector of tourism plays a more significant role in less densely populated regions along the country’s coastline, in the Alps and in the southwest. In these districts, overnight stays exceed the number of inhabitants up to 40 to 50 times (INKAR, 2024).
This strong representation of the tourism sector is a main driver for economic performance. Coastal districts, for instance, tend to show better economic indicators than their inland neighbours (INKAR, 2024). At the same time, an over-reliance on this sector also creates vulnerabilities (Sarrión-Gavilán et al., 2015, Bei & Celata, 2024). Understanding the spatial implications of labour market trends in tourism is interesting because occupations in this sector are highly susceptible to digitalisation. Research indicates that occupations such as waiters and waitresses, check-in clerks at accommodations, but also tour guides and hosts perform tasks that can easily be automated (Frey & Osborne, 2017).
While digitalisation trends are difficult to translate into simple (one- or two-dimensional) indicators, we can already perceive certain transformation effects in the tourism sector, impacting the labour market. Examples include check-in machines at accommodations or app-based tour guides used by tourists during their visits. Additional indicators related to digitalisation show among others a higher potential exposure of occupations in the tourism sector towards Artificial Intelligence (Felten et al., 2021) and a relatively high share of digital skills needed to conduct their usual tasks (Lennon et al., 2023), even though such exposures are rather moderate when compared to their computerisation potentials.
Our research provides a replicable approach to integrating outputs in the field of research in digitalisation trends with spatial labor market analysis. This is done through a harmonisation of (official) labour market taxonomies and information on digitalisation queried from different sources. The approach is presented on the example of Germany on the district (Kreise) level, with a focus on (rural) touristic regions, where we develop a multi-dimensional measure to describe regional tourism susceptibility to digitalisation. Outputs can be used to interpret the regional vulnerability towards potential job losses, possible needs for further training in the sector (e.g. due to changes in the nature of how tasks are being conducted) and the impact of local economic geographies, aligned with ancillary industries and sectors.
References
Bei, G., & Celata, F. (2024). Annals of Tourism Research Challenges and effects of short-term rentals regulation A counterfactual assessment of European cities. Annals of Tourism Research, 101(2023), 103605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103605
Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195–2217. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3286
Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 114, 254–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019
INKAR. (2024). Laufende Raumbeobachtung des BBSR - INKAR [Dataset]. https://www.inkar.de/
Lennon, C., Zilian, L. S., & Zilian, S. S. (2023). Digitalisation of occupations—Developing an indicator based on digital skill requirements. PLOS ONE, 18(1), e0278281. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278281
Sarrión-Gavilán, M. D., Benítez-Márquez, M. D., & Mora-Rangel, E. O. (2015). Spatial distribution of tourism supply in Andalusia. Tourism Management Perspectives, 15, 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2015.03.008
| Keywords | tourism; artificial intelligence; digitalisation; labour market |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
