TACKLING SOCIAL EXCLUSION THROUGH SOCIAL TOURISM PROGRAMS FOR ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED FAMILIES

Abstract

Tourism offers opportunities to explore new environments and participate in new situations, which may originate several benefits for tourists. Although the recognition of these potential benefits and the fact that tourism has grown considerably in recent decades, there still many doubts about the social impacts of tourism on tourists and many constraints to the practice of tourism. Low income is one of those constraints that make tourism inaccessible for many groups in society, even in the developed economies. In this context, social tourism appears as an attempt to restore equal access to tourism, integrating targets related to combat poverty and social exclusion. Notwithstanding this reality, few studies analyzing tourism for low-income groups have been undertaken.

This study aims at analyzing the benefits that may arise from social tourism programs for low-income families of the developed societies and to reflect about some of the existing social tourism programs directed to this segment. To achieve this objective, a documental analysis was carried out, which allowed to: (i) understand the benefits that may arise from tourism for low-income families; (ii) verify that some social tourism programs for low-income families were created in Europe through the last century; and (iii) analyze the main characteristics of each one of them.