Purpose: Discussing tendencies and shortcomings in the current debate on promoting decent work in hospitality and tourism, this study aims to respond to recent calls for progress on improving employee well-being. It proposes elements of a productivity-based strategy embedded in a circular dynamic linking productivity, service quality, profitability and job quality to enhance tourism employees’ well-being in view of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8 on decent work. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on recent empirical work on gift exchange theory, this viewpoint article presents a possible scenario that should stimulate debate among scholars and local policymakers of how decent work and quality of life can be achieved in traditional tourism destinations. This would fill a gap in the current debate, which focuses on quantitatively marginal alternative forms of tourism, to overcome problems inherent to growth-based tourism. Findings: This contribution proposes a productivity-based development strategy supported by an incentive regulation policy targeting employers who provide tourist services in mass tourism destinations, promoting job quality to raise productivity and enhance service quality and in the end profitability. Originality/value: This short article proposes a new perspective on promoting decent work in traditional tourism destinations based on gift exchange theory and discusses the scope for research essential to support a development based on the scenario described by a circular model.

This study investigates how tourism employment affects life satisfaction — not only for workers themselves, but also for their partners — using European Social Survey data from 30 countries (2002−2022). Tourism workers report lower life satisfaction, which is largely attributable to socioeconomic factors. However, partners of tourism workers experience an even larger reduction in life satisfaction — a ‘partner penalty’ exceeding the estimated effect of divorce. This life satisfaction penalty for partners is concentrated among men and families with children, suggesting that gender norms and caregiving responsibilities play a central role. Notably, dual-tourism couples do not exhibit this penalty, consistent with shared occupational understanding. Proxy indicators suggest time-based work-family conflict, including disrupted family time and reduced social interactions, as a plausible mechanism.

As nature is ubiquitous in tourism marketing and personal pictures of vacation trips, the question asked in this contribution is to what extent nature is present in people’s recalled trip experiences and how this relates to subjective wellbeing (SWB) in the form of emotions and satisfaction with life (SWL). To address this question, a dataset not collected under the theme of nature-based tourism (NBT) was employed. Based on a very broad definition of nature, findings indicate that (i) NBT represents more frequently recalled vacation trip experiences than urban experiences; (ii) a positive relationship exists between recalled active nature-based vacation experiences (NBVE) and the intensity of emotions elicited; (iii) recalling passive experiences elicits different emotions as compared to active ones; (iv) recalled NBVE and emotions elicited have a positive influence on SWL; and (v) the relationship between nature-based experiences and SWL depends on duration and intensity of the recalled trip experience.