Holiday traffic : report of the Forty-Fourth Round Table on Transport Economics held in Paris on 7-8 December 1978

58 Pages·1980·2.214 MB·English

by  OECD

ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE
HOLIDAY TRAFFIC
EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT
PARIS1979
ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE
REPORT OF
THE FORTY-FOURTH ROUND TABLE
ON TRANSPORT ECONOMICS
held in Paris on 7th and 8th December, 1978
on the following topic:
HOLIDAY TRAFFIC
EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT
The European Conference ofMinisters of Transport (ECMT) was insti¬
tuted by a Protocol signed at Brussels on 17th October 1953. It comprises the
Ministers of Transport of the following 19 countries: Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United
Kingdom and Yugoslavia (associated countries: Australia, Canada, Japan,
United States).
Thepurposes ofthe ECMT are:
to take whatever measures may be necessary to achieve, at general or
regional level, the maximum use and most rational development of
European inland transport ofinternational importance;
to co-ordinate andpromote the activities ofInternationalOrganisations
concerned with European inlandtransport (rail, road, navigable ways),
taking into account the work ofsupranational authorities in thisfield
© ECMT, 1979
ECMT publications are marketed by the Sale ofPublications Department ofthe
OECD, 2, rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 PARIS CEDEX 16, France.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HOLIDAY TRAFFIC
C. KASPAR (cid:9) 5
SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION (cid:9) 39
(Round Table debate on the report)
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS (cid:9) 51
ECMT ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE
Forthcoming publications (cid:9) 55

HOLIDAY TRAFFIC
Professor C. KASPAR
University of Saint-Gall
Switzerland
SUMMARY
Prefatory remarks (cid:9) 7
Features of holiday traffic (cid:9) 9
2.1 General comments (cid:9) 9
2.2 Holiday traffic on the railways (cid:9) 12
2.3 Holiday traffic by road (cid:9) 14
2.4 Holiday traffic by air (cid:9) 15
2.5 Holiday traffic by sea (cid:9) 17
2.6 Structures of holiday traffic (cid:9) 17
Imbalances in holiday traffic . . . . ; (cid:9) 21
3.1 General comments (cid:9) 21
3.2 Concentration - seasonal effect (cid:9) 21
3.3 Concentration - spatial effect (cid:9) 24
3.4 Concentration - effects on the infrastructure .... 24
3.5 Conclusions (cid:9) 29
Solutions to the problem of imbalance in holiday
traffic (cid:9) 30
4.1 Staggering of holidays (cid:9) 30
4.2 The spreading out and staggering of school
holidays (cid:9) 32
4.3 General holidays (cid:9) 33
4.4 Pricing policy (cid:9) 34
4.5 Measures to reduce congestion- (cid:9) 35
4.6 Co-ordinated infrastructure planning (cid:9) 36
Transport operators' interest in additional and
staggered holidays (cid:9) 37
PREFATORY REMARKS
A representative of the "social tourism" recently said:
"Touring, holidays and leisure have now become an increasingly
deeply-felt aspiration and need, resulting in a deeply-rooted
social requirement". Certainly, the age of leisure is now accepted
as a major social development with a powerful influence on man's
daily and seasonal activities.
Unlike travel in the days before high-capacity means of trans¬
port had appeared, touring today is a mass phenomenon as far as the
scope of its social impact is concerned, but at the same time it is
an expression of individuality when viewed in terms of the range
and volume of private motoring and of what the tourist expects to
find on the market, whether by way of means of travel or of accom¬
modation. These are the two component elements of touring.
The importance of transport is roughly indicated by the two
distinguishing - and, it might be thought, mutually incompatible -
ideas of mass and individuality, and we are thus afforded a prior
glimpse of the stated characteristics which govern the origin and
limits of flows of tourist traffic.
Defining the interaction between touring and transport in this
way does not, however, get away from the fact that touring and the
various forms it assumes have contributed significantly to the
development of modes of transport, and more especially of the car
and the aircraft.
Transport's property as an originating and a limiting factor
of flows of tourist traffic is explicable by the concept that
touring can be viewed as the whole complex of relationships and
phenomena arising out of the journeys and stays of people for whom
the place where they stay is neither their main, permanent place of
residence, nor the place where they usually work.(l) However, only
the "leisure activity" aspects of tourism are discussed in this
paper.
It follows that the means of transport, the facilities avail¬
able for making the journey, are not only the indispensable pre¬
condition of tourist travel, enabling a stay away from home to be
1) C. Kaspar, Le tourisme, objet d'etude scientifique, Revue de
tourisme n° 4/76. Berne 1976.
made, but those same facilities also limit flows of tourist traffic
quantitatively - the number of means of transport governs its
volume - and qualitatively - the quality of available transport
facilities governs the nature of flows of tourist traffic.
For the purposes of this inquiry, touring - a major economic
and social factor, as will appear - requires that a distinction be
drawn between short-stay touring and extended tours. The former
comprises transitory touring of not more than three nights' dura¬
tion, and short-distance trips. The latter is distinguished by a
period of absence from home of at least four nights, and constitutes
holiday touring, giving rise to holiday traffic, with which we are
concerned.
FEATURES OF HOLIDAY TRAFFIC
2.1 General comments
According to statistics from the World Touring Organisation,
OMT, the number of arrivals alone in international touring rose
from about 25.3 million in 1950 to 240 million in 1977, an increase
of something like 940 per cent. The extraordinary success of post¬
war touring is based on the following factors: (1)
- The increase in real incomes,
by reason of which touring has come within the reach of ever
wider social strata. An increase in the proportion of in¬
comes spent on holidays and travel has also been recorded.
- Population growth,
leading to an increase in the number of potential tourists.
- Technical advances,
largely benefiting touring because of advances in transport
and communications.
- The growth in the rate of motorisation,
highly favourable to the growth of touring, since the private
car lends the tourist the mobility he requires and encourages
him to embark on touring journeys.
- The increase in leisure,
with the shorter working day, longer weekends and the general
extension of holidays with pay.
- A change in the structure of employment,
with a growth of the tertiary sector, from which most
tourists come.
- The improvement in the general level of education,
stimulating travel, the quest for knowledge and the urge to
discovery.
- Concentration in cities,
with the accompanying need to escape from the constraints of
daily life.
These objective phenomena derive from subjective needs which
are distinctive features of the tourist's basic needs: (2)
1) J. Krippendorf, Les devoreurs de paysages. Editions 24 heures,
Lausanne 1977, p. 20.
2) J. Krippendorf, op.cit. p. 14.