# Sports Tourism and the Labor Shortage How Sports Tourism is Adapting to the Labor Shortage

Bernard Massiera, Imed Ben Mahmoud, Qing Xu, Eric Perrera

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Bernard Massiera, Imed Ben Mahmoud, Qing Xu, Eric Perrera. Sports Tourism and the Labor Shortage How Sports Tourism is Adapting to the Labor Shortage. Tourism Today, 2024, 23, pp.103-111. hal-05321428

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# How Sports Tourism is Adapting to the Labor Shortage<fnref n="1" />

Bernard Massiera<fnref n="2" />, Imed Ben Mahmoud<fnref n="3" />, Qing Xu<fnref n="4" /> and Eric Perrera<fnref n="5" />

## ABSTRACT

Our work highlights how sports tourism professionals have adapted to relaunch their activities in the wake of the health crisis, and whether any corollaries persist in our current situation. Indeed, a question arises. If travel is returning to normal, why doesn't the sports tourism sector seem to be returning to previous levels? The survey tells us that, after the period of confinement, sports tourism players reoriented themselves towards more stable, less seasonal occupations. When the sector took off again, and to cope with the influx of customers, sports tourism professionals found themselves obliged to adjust their offer by rationalizing the supply and its management, but without these adaptations being able to fully remedy the scarcity of qualified manpower.

**Keywords:** Post Covid19, Tourism, Physical Activity

## INTRODUCTION

Since the end of the 1970s, we have witnessed the sportivization of our modern societies, where free time is transformed into time for maintaining the body (Perera and Valet, 2021). These new physical practices are integrated and organize logics of “self-governance” (Foucault, 1983). Maintaining the body through physical activity meets health expectations. Leisure time becomes an opportunity to take care of oneself, valued by the consumer culture (Featherstone et al., 1991). The demand for physical exercise has grown considerably, not

<footnote n="1">¹ This work was supported by ITCA (Institut du Tourisme Côte d'Azur).</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Graduate School of Health Science Ecosystems, Cote d'Azur University, France. ORCID: 0000-0001-7506-5392 email: Bernard.Massiera@univ-cotedazur.fr</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Higher Institute of Physical Education and Sport, Université of Manouba, Tunisia. Graduate School of Health Science Ecosystems, Cote d'Azur University, France. ORCID: 0009-0006-1743-1386 email: Imed.Ben-Mahmoud@univ-cotedazur.fr</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Faculty of Management, Economics & Science, Catholic University of Lille, France. ORCID: 0000-0003-2563-8599 email: qing.xu@univ-catholille.fr</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Faculty of Science and Technique of Physical and Sports Activities, Montpellier University, France. ORCID: 0000-0001-8151-3809. email: pereraeric@gmail.com</footnote>
only in leisure activities but also in vacations (Novelli et al., 2006). The tourism sector has seized upon these logics of self-maintenance through physical activity (Perera and Le Roux, 2021) through the travel experience (Pigeassou, 2002, 2004). Sport tourism refers to a trip lasting at least 24 hours outside the region of origin (Nogawa, 1996). The purpose of these trips is to take part in physical, recreational and cultural activities (Pigeassou, 2002, 2004; Gibson, 2003). This type of tourism is a way of recharging one's batteries through sporting leisure activities (Ceriani et al., 2005). They are an opportunity to cut away from everyday life and foster an experience of well-being (Tan et al., 2014).

ISSUE

The health crisis linked to Covid-19 and its successive confinements hit this sector hard between 2020 and 2021. Tourism fell by 87% (UNWTO Report, June 2021), and it will take until 2023 to return to a level of activity similar to 2019 (UNWTO Report, January 2023). Our questioning is focused on the fact that the recovery of sports tourism seems to be slow in France (Olbia Conseil et Média Filière report, February 2024). This sector, like that of traditional tourism, is experiencing difficulties in recruiting qualified personnel. Every year, the entire tourism sector in France requires 600,000 seasonal workers (UMIH report, July 2022). Sports instructors, lifeguards, vacation leaders... are all in short supply. In this particular context of shortage of qualified human resources, our work looks at how players in the sports tourism sector have adapted.

Logics of action in a context of scarcity: We draw on the concept of “logics of action” (Amblard et al., 2005) to study and model how professionals have adapted the overall sports tourism offer in the face of scarcity. The concept of “logics of action” refers to individual reasoning and situations that induce actions in a particular context. The concept aims to explore how reasoning arises when making decisions to act in an “action situation” (Amblard et al., 2005). Epistemologically, the concept derives from “bounded rationality”, developed by Herbert Simon, and rethought in relation to work organizations (Crozier & Friedberg, 2014). This notion refers to the idea that when sports tourism players implement actions within their organization, their logics are governed both by a “strategic” dimension (Crozier & Friedberg, 2014) but also by a cultural dimension linked to the priorities and values cultivated in their professional environment (Sainsaulieu, 2019).

In France, there is a wide range of structures offering sports tourism activities. These include both large tourism operators and small structures with varying statuses (associations, micro-enterprises, companies, institutions, etc.). The training of those involved in sports tourism is marked by different aspects, ranging from the teaching of physical activity to research into sports performance and tourism entertainment (Dubois, 2009). The training and career paths of those working in the field are diverse (teachers with university degrees, educators with sports diplomas, certified popular education instructors, etc.). As a result, the objectives of these structures and the values of these professionals can be varied, marked to varying
degrees by educational, sporting, commercial or associative logics (Barbusse, 2002; Byers et al., 2022; Pierre et al., 2010; Perrin, 2016; Perrin et al., 2021; Roux-Perez, 2006).

The tourism sector and its sports tourism sub-sector have redeployed themselves in the wake of the health crisis. Various reports highlight the fact that the sector is struggling to recruit qualified staff, but without studying the adaptations that enable them to cope with this labor shortage. An approach aimed at understanding the logics of adaptation, and their potential links with the various professional characteristics and cultures of the sector's players, could prove useful in understanding and predicting organizational evolutions in times of crisis. This article explores the organizational adaptations of sports tourism offerings in the wake of a health crisis, by analyzing the logics of action that govern the decisions and actions adopted by its players, and by attempting to link them to the professional cultures of its players.

## MATERIALS AND METHODS

This research work is an exploratory phase of the organization of the sports tourism offer in the wake of the health crisis in France. The survey took place in south-eastern France, in the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur (PACA) region, where the tourism offer is rich and varied. We are interested in understanding and analyzing how sports tourism professionals have redefined their offers and practices, in the face of a shortage of manpower. We conducted interviews with sports tourism managers (director, president, administrator...) and meetings with physical activity professionals working in leisure and sports tourism (table n°1).

To gather our data, we proceeded with “natural” data collection (Silverman, 2014), during opportunities to meet with these sports tourism players. We relied on note-taking during interviews and meetings, as well as more spontaneous exchanges of words gathered according to the opportunities of the moment. Our information came from tourism administrators (n=5) and sports entertainment professionals (n=7). These meetings took place between spring 2022 and autumn 2022. The interviews were analyzed according to the principles of content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004). The data collected was transposed into written form. The exchanges were analyzed in two stages. A coding phase was undertaken (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). This involved identifying and labelling relevant segments of text in relation to the themes addressed in the interview guide, such as current events in sports tourism and adaptations to the supply of sports practices in the face of a shortage of professionals. We then sought to model the links between the themes, by reorganizing all the comments according to the adaptations to the sports activities on offer. We devised a two-axis organization model, ranging from the discontinuation of sports services in the tourism offer to various forms of adaptation. The vertical axis concerns the place of sporting activities in the tourism offer, while the horizontal axis reflects the adaptations that make it possible to cope with the constraints of supervising activities.
# RESULTS

Observation highlights the organizational adaptations that enable sports tourism operators to provide services to their customers. Organized by profile type according to the adaptation methods used to deal with the shortage of manpower, we identify for each profile: the methods used by service providers to reduce their activities (sometimes abandoning them) or to adapt the organization of their services, and the underlying rationales that seem to explain their decisions (table 2).

## Profile 1

Maintaining a reduced range of sporting activities at the heart of the offer: A first profile concerns service providers who have chosen to refuse to welcome too many clients to their physical activity sessions. In particular, these providers emphasized the importance of the educational dimension, highlighting the concerns of supervisors and safety constraints. They also mentioned other material obstacles, such as the capacity of venues or practice sites. For these service providers, the quality of their service is the most important factor, even if we can see their frustration when they have to reduce their capacity in order to welcome the majority of their customers in the best possible way. Overall, the decision to adapt services by limiting the number of participants was justified by the strategic position occupied by sports coaching for customers. And this, despite the decline in the profitability of sessions when we consider the time and energy invested in prioritizing the quality of sports activities.

## Profile 2

Pooling sporting activities between several partners: A second profile concerns service providers who have worked to maintain quality sporting activities within their tourism structures by simplifying the services on offer and joining forces with external partners. These choices underline the economic importance of sports in the tourism offering for these professionals. The challenge is to maintain sports services as part of the tourism offering, with each service provider responding minimally and partially to customer demand for activities. For this category of players, satisfying their customers is at the heart of their business. For them, it was a question of maintaining the attractiveness of the offer that their customers are used to. We note the work overload and fatigue caused by the organizational difficulties of pooling activities between several service providers, each of whom provides part of the overall offering.

## Profile 3

Standardizing activities to keep them in the offer: While these providers are similar to other profiles in the efforts they have made to emerge from confinement, the strategic place of sport within the offer has weighed heavily on organizational adaptations. These players have relaunched their activities by adapting to the constraints of shortages through rationalization of the activities on offer (group practices, reduced supervision, standardization of sessions, etc.). This logic of action is characterized by the transformation of sessions designed to accommodate the greatest number of customers. In this way, a wide range of sporting activities is offered to customers, even if the consumerist logic leads to a loss of relevance due to a lack of social ties.
## Profile 4

Outsourcing sports activities to subcontractors: A final profile concerns service providers who have chosen to outsource their sports activities entirely. These operators put forward the profitability rationale, underlining the concerns and financial constraints of maintaining an unmanageable offer due to lack of personnel. The operators concerned are structures of varying size and nature, where sporting activities are not central to the offer, the core business being accommodation and travel.

## DISCUSSION

In creating a typology of organizational adaptations of the sports offer within tourism services, we have considered similarities and divergences in the logics of action. We seek to weave links with the professional characteristics of service providers. The modelled adaptations (Figure 2) suggest that the action strategies - inscribed in their singular professional contexts - are the fruit of logics that emanate in part from the values and cultural codes of the actors, but also from the material resources mobilized by the service providers in their “action situation”. Indeed, even if the common action situation concerned an environment of labor shortage, each group of providers composed with the resources of their structure, but in accordance with the cultural dimensions of their trade (Sainsaulieu, 2019). Thus, two main aspects seem to emerge from these adaptations.

### Profiles 1 and 2

These players stress the importance of continuing to provide quality sports activities. These logics call for the implementation of strict organizational procedures: reduction in the number of participants, waiting lists, pooling of activities between different sports tourism players, each of whom provides a particular practice. At the top end of the scale, it's important to keep sports managers close to their customers. This logic seems to be linked to contexts where sporting activity is at the heart of the sporting offer (hiking, aquatic, nautical tourism...) Physical activity is at the heart of the profession, and the professional culture values close relations with customers. We hypothesize that these decisions to adapt in a crisis context have been shaped by the values and priorities of personal sports support and service, which seem particularly reinforced during academic and professional socialization in university environments (Perrin, 2016; Perrin et al., 2021; Roux-Perez, 2006).

### Profiles 3 and 4

The emphasis is on profitability, and customers are presented with a commercial relationship. In times of confinement, these service providers have found themselves immersed in a spiral of constraints, and have rationalized their modes of intervention. As a result, the sports on offer are more akin to consumerist practices, where the commitment of participants has sometimes been weakened through easier, less engaging practices. In these structures, sporting activities appear to have a lower priority or to be less profitable among the range of services on offer (large resorts, club hotels, holiday villages, tourist residences, etc.). The
professional cultures of the people who work there appear to be focused on service provision and less on support. Proximity with participants was presented more from the perspective of service provision, rather than that of accompanying users during their stay. As sports tourism evolves in a competitive context, they have given priority to management, communication and marketing to ensure the structure's long-term survival. It's worth pointing out that these players are more likely to come from tourism-related professions, with additional diplomas and qualifications relating to physical and sports activities.

However, there are limits to these results. It concerns a single region of France and a non-exhaustive sample of structures. What's more, the profiles are an imperfect tool, based on modelled interpretations of the data. Finally, it is difficult to compare the results with any pre-existing literature, as the situation of emergence from an epidemic crisis and containment remains unprecedented.

## CONCLUSION

The end of the epidemic episode thrust sports tourism operators into the midst of a labor shortage environment, which weighed heavily on their business recovery. These service providers had to adapt their practices according to their priorities and resources. Our analyses have identified four player profiles based on the adaptations they have made in response to this context. By situating these on two axes represented by continuums of adaptation type (between internal and external supervision) and form (between sport at the heart of or ancillary to the tourism offering), this analytical model offers a visualization of the characteristics that help condition and explain the logics of adaptation in sport tourism in a context of manpower shortages.

A reflection based on professional cultures (Sainsaulieu, 2019), combined with the analysis of logics of action at work (Amblard et al., 2005), brought out of the analytical model the hypothesis of a place for professional cultures concerning the place of accompaniment and the social link with customers. Overall, the modeling of these complex processes, which govern the logic of adaptation to the crisis, has enabled us to understand, and perhaps better predict and support, the decisions and strategies adopted by service providers in this sector of activity.

On the one hand, the post-covid sports tourism recovery is evolving in a consumer context that has increased and trivialized the sports offer to a simple service provision. Physical activity sessions now follow one another at a steady pace, with plenty of demonstrations, and the public mostly participate by mimicry. On the other hand, sports instructors have turned to less seasonal occupations that enable them to make a living all year round (Dubois, 2009), creating a shortage of skilled labor that is likely to continue in the years to come. If the sports tourism sector is to solve its labor shortage and reduce staff turnover, it seems essential that its professionals invest in the issue of quality of working life, working conditions and wages in the sector.
**Table 1: Table of interviews**

Code & Characteristics of interview organizations

- "A", association upgraded as a simplified joint-stock company (n=1).

- "B", association integrating a structured promotional service (n=3).

- "C", association with centralized management at national level (n=1).

- "D", travel company for disabled people (n=1).

- "E", association that groups together several vacation villages around the world (n=1)

- "F", company that facilitates travel for specific target groups (n=1).

- "G", association offering outdoor sports tourism (n=3).

- "H", federation representing the sport tourism sector at regional level (n=1).

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Table 2: Logic of action of sports tourism providers, located according to the strategic importance of sport in the tourism offer**</figcaption></figure>
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