The Euroimserso Tourism Program – Can It Work?

THR's opinion

The Euroimserso Tourism Program – Can It Work?

The popular IMSERSO program is a Spanish travel service aimed at pensioners and people over 65 years of age, aiding their ability to travel. Implemented during the off-season for destinations, the program is able to offer very competitive prices for travelers while supporting the tourism sector during lower-income months.

In addition to its clear economic benefits, the program serves an important social function, delivering thousands of people the opportunity to go on significantly less expensive trips, enjoying group vacations with people their own age, as well as receiving the specialized attention they sometimes need.

The IMSERSO Social Tourism Program has in the past contributed to more than 72,000 jobs per year in the Spanish tourism sector, along with generating up to €435 million per year for the Spanish economy.

Recently, a Spanish member of the European Parliament raised a proposal to replicate this model at a European level leading to several questions: what benefits could this program bring and to whom? What difficulties could it encounter? What reception could it have among European residents?

Following this proposal, here is what THR’s tourism experts think about the potential plan:

Benefits

This project would provide particular benefit to three different parties:

  • Europe: as a political and economic unit

  • European travel destinations: as the receivers of the travelers

  • The individual travelers participating in the program.


Europe

Economically this proposal would help dynamize the broader European tourism sector off-season – as it has in Spain - so that airlines, accommodations, and destination services, among many others, would see their revenue-generating activity increased.

As well, this program could help develop a greater shared European identity among its participants, similar to the undergraduate Erasmus program that allows European university students to study in countries outside their own.

The EUROIMSERSO program would allow citizens of various countries - who may not normally be able to afford the opportunity - to travel beyond their borders at economical prices, getting to know their neighboring countries, architecture and gastronomy first-hand while highlighting how diverse and culturally wealthy Europe is.

Destinations:

At the regional and local levels, some destinations would see an immediate benefit. The additional source of tourism would help reduce seasonality and increase income during the least dynamic months, which would especially benefit traditionally warmer-climate destinations such as Croatia, Italy, and Greece.

Individual travelers:

The group that would most benefit - pensioners and people over 65 years of age; proportionally an increasing segment of the population - shares specific characteristics and needs. Organized pan-European trips would allow this set of travelers support to overcome challenging logistics, language, and other barriers as well as giving them peace of mind during their journey.

Nonetheless, we do not know the degree of reception that this initiative would have in the European Union. Even though this program is a success in Spain, we cannot assume that the broader European response would be the same. Beyond the sociodemographic differences themselves, there may be additional hesitations depending on the characteristics of different European travelers around language and cultural differences, for example, which may discourage broader uptake of the program.

Drawbacks

Beyond the previously mentioned factors, the potential for a EUROIMSERSO program generates certain potential issues.

  • Image issues: the model takes advantage of low off-season prices in order to offer competitively-priced trips. This implies that some of the offered accommodation may be of lower quality and may not meet customer expectations, which would generate a negative reputation for the destination and/or the receiving country.

  • Funding and asymmetric impact: the IMSERSO program involves allocating public resources in the form of subsidies. Regardless of their profitability, some countries – mainly Mediterranean – could see significantly more benefit than others, since even off-season, they enjoy a temperate climate that would increase their demand. This asymmetric impact could generate political discrepancies and the refusal of some governments to implement the program.

  • Management and uncertainty: another question generated by EUROIMSERSO is who should be responsible for managing the program. In certain sectors, state management or the organization of public tenders can generate skepticism. Also, some argue that this year is perhaps suboptimal to raise this proposal, as Europe slowly emerges from a period of health and economic insecurity.


In Sum

The IMSERSO program is a model that generates abundant benefits for Spanish society and its economy, which has led to the question of how viable it could be within a broader European framework.

It would be necessary to determine, however, how well the program might be received and how it would be managed, among other potential obstacles. Broad dialogue and consensus would be needed to carry out this program.

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