The Seasonal Labor Hoarding in Tourist Enterprises—Choice or Necessity?

Abstract

The seasonality of tourism demand is a natural condition for the functioning of tourist enterprises and affects the choice of employment practice. The aim of the research is to identify the practices of employing workers in tourism industry enterprises and try to understand the determinants of these decisions. The main research questions were what employment practices are used in tourist enterprises and how does the opinion on the condition of the local labor market influence this choice? It was assumed that, in the tourism industry, seasonal fluctuations can be treated the same way cyclical fluctuations are treated in the analysis of dynamic labor demand. The basis for the conclusions was the results of a survey conducted in the tourism industry enterprises in the seaside region of Poland. In the tourist region of the Polish Baltic Sea, 75.6% of tourist enterprises use the practice of total or partial labor hoarding, and 24.4% of enterprises do not use the practice of labor hoarding. They immediately adjust employment to seasonal changes in demand.