In recent years, some international tourism destinations have repeatedly experienced employment shortages or over-employment in a short period of time due to fluctuations in tourism demand. Since the local labor force is limited, some non-metropolitan destinations face a challenge to solve the chronic labor shortage and secure a stable labor force from outside the region. On the other hand, tourism geography has not accumulated enough research on employment aspects (Ioannides and Zampoukos, 2018). It remains unclear the mechanisms of how tourism destinations secure labor and what geographical factors sustain the local labor market.
This study aims to clarify how the local labor market overcomes the socioeconomic vulnerabilities surrounding the tourism industry (e.g., economic crisis, pandemics) to secure labor for island tourism destinations. The research area, Okinawa?Japanese international island tourism destination? has experienced both overtourism (labor shortage) and pandemic since the 2010s. This study discussed how the labor market secures local workers and also SIEs outside the region and solves the employment mismatch, based on census dates and interviews.
As a result, in the two research areas (Ishigaki Island and Miyako Island), only local employment was insufficient during the overtourism period when the construction of accommodations continued to rush. Public employment security office played a vital role in encouraging seasonal stay and migration of SIEs. During the pandemic period,SIEs were laid off, especially in small and medium-sized accommodations due to deteriorating business conditions, while some accommodations continued to actively recruit in preparation for re-overtourism. The details of how the local labor markets are adjusted under the local geographical conditions will be reported in the day.
Mots clés : local labor market|Island tourism|SIEs|Pandemic|overtourism
A102644JK