Mitigating Seasonality in Tourism : - A Case Study of Kalmar

Sammanfattning

Seasonality is a strongly persistent issue that is faced by multiple tourism destinations and is especially evident in destinations with one strong peak season. This thesis delves into how different tourism stakeholders in the destination of Kalmar in Sweden use strategies to mitigate seasonality to help them on their journey to becoming a year-round destination. With the use of an abductive, qualitative research approach, interviews were carried out and data was collected from 10 stakeholders within Kalmar. This was supported by pre-existing literature on topics, such as seasonality, the Marketing Mix as well as the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC). The findings showed that the marketing strategies as well as collaboration amongst the varying stakeholders of Kalmar, were central factors impacting the reduction of seasonality. The stakeholders placed an emphasis on the relevance of product diversification strategies to develop more low-season products and therefore evening out tourism. The thesis also further highlights the social, economic and institutional impacts that seasonality can bring and reinforces the need for coordinated destination development. The results offer a strong contribution to the pre-existing theory from a Nordic context and therefore is a beneficial insight to business as well managers for destinations to help mitigate seasonality struggles.