Seasonality is a concept that is well studied and documented in the tourism literature. Being ubiquitous, all
tourism enterprises and regions are impacted by seasonality whether severely or mildly. Seasonality causes the
fluctuation in tourists and visitor numbers to a destination. Therefore, some destinations at certain times have
more tourists and visitors than they are able to accommodate, while at other times, there are too few tourists and
visitors to the region. Although, seasonality is widely perceived in a negative light because its effects are linked
with a reduction of tourist dollars, not all effects of tourism are negative.
There are many strategies that are used to address the effects of seasonality. These include pricing strategies,
diversifying the attraction, market diversification and seeking assistance from the government and industry
bodies. Increasing the length of the tourist season and modifying the timing to school holidays are other
strategies. At enterprise level, additional strategies include the recruitment of temporary staff. With the range of
available strategies for addressing the effects of seasonality, the selection and adoption of a strategy should be in
line with the strategic plan of the enterprise or the destination for an effective result. In today’s environment,
such decision making would need to include and consider social and environmental factors in addition to
economic ones.
Although many strategies can be transferable from one industry to another, more detailed research is
necessary to investigate the individual strategies in relation to the industry and the impact of these strategies on
the different stakeholders and the environment at the destination.