BTHS1: EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR

Running head: EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
Tourism is one of the biggest contributors to the economy to almost every country in the
world, and a major source of foreign currency inflow. A huge quantity of infrastructural
development can be boosted by the tourism. Coupled with hospitality, this sector is one the
biggest, most important and a rapidly growing sector, in a global scale, which has only upward
movement in the years to come and a lower chance of a slump. Apart from the obvious financial
aspect, the tourism and hospitality industry, both global and country specific, helps to generate
large numbers of employment opportunities (Zaei and Zaei 2013). There are many career options
that are related to this industry, both directly and indirectly, which are created by it or is a
byproduct of the operations and requirements of the sector. The current paper looks into the
employment situations that are instigated by the tourism industry and the present condition of the
same, as well as try to predict a future for the industry in terms of being a generator of
employment.
In this century, the global economy is being driven by three major industries: technology,
telecommunications and tourism. The umbrella term “tourism” refers to a number of different
activities that are all set to provide the consumers with an all-inclusive and immersive experience
aimed at creating beautiful memories (Urosevic et al. 2017). The travel experiences include
different attractions, transportations, lodging, other accommodation facilities, retail shops, eating
and drinking, entertainment and other numerous hospitality services.
The global travel and tourism (T&T) industry is the leading job creating sector and
employs more than 98 million people worldwide. This number is only the people who are
directly employed by the sector and represents almost 3 percent of the global labour population
(FitzPatrick et al. 2013). If even the indirect jobs are included, the industry employs almost one
in every eleven persons worldwide. As a single industry, tourism involves more people than any

2EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
other industry (McKercher and Prideaux 2014). Over the span of the last two decades, travel and
tourism has played increasingly important role in the economic development of almost every
country in the world. In Australia, almost eight percent of the work force is somehow related to
the tourism industry. Despite this statistics, the Australian tourism industry is suffering from
almost 38,000 job vacancies currently and the government has identified some key issues that are
to be addressed to mitigate these challenges.
An improved method of hiring the employees and making sure they are retained.
Improving the regional tourism industries and plan in ways that are focused upon the
development of the same.
Pin-pointing the educational gaps and the training drawbacks and then planning the probable
mechanisms that may address these issues.
Expanding the traditional workplace and enhancing the mobility of the workforce.
Tourism Employment Plan (TEP) is one such mechanism that is trying to provide easy to
use and practical tools to help the T&T industry to withstand the pressure of the increasing
labour and skills pressures in the country. In 2011, eight labour and skills “hot spots” were
selected across the country that were to become the centers for the development of these Tourism
Employment Plans. These places were all selected based on the Australian Tourism Labour
Force Report, which pointed at the at the fact that many tourism related businesses are
experiencing problems relating to recruitment, retention and skill issues of the labours. It was
also concluded, from the same report, that localised strategies are necessary that are targeted
towards the mitigation of the problems as there cannot be one single uniform solution for all the
problems (Sloan, Legrand and Simons-Kaufmann 2014).

3EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
The tourism industry itself is a huge area and has to have a vast amount of employees that
would be absolutely necessary to take care of all the aspects of the sector. The industry, apart
from only the directly employed workers, also uses a large number of indirectly employed
workers who all contribute to the operations and functions of the industry as a whole (Chathoth
et al. 2016). The directly employed workers of the tourism industry come from the sectors like
hotels, restaurants, offices providing tourism related information, travel conducting agencies,
aircraft and airports, cruise lines, shopping or memorabilia shops, resorts. These people are
related to the areas that are directly in contact with the tourists and have to provide their services
to take care of the demands and requests of the tourists to make sure they are given an experience
that would stay with them even long after their vacation is over (Lasten et al. 2014). Indirect
employees of the tourism industry come from areas such as restaurant ingredients suppliers,
construction companies that build the resorts and hotels along with the infrastructure that is
necessary to take the pressure of the tourists, aircraft manufacturing industries, handicraft
workers or producers, marketing agencies, accounting services providing companies any some
other sectors that contribute to the T&T industry even though their own operations are not
apparently related to the sector. In many ways, the people who are indirectly employed by the
tourism industry are more in numbers than the people who come directly to the contact with the
tourists (Zaei and Zaei 2013).
The continuously expanding tourism industry across the planet is employing more and
more people every day to meet the challenges and the ever evolving requirements of the tourists.
Tourism industry is currently one of the most efficient generators of employment., both direct
and direct. As a possibility for my future career, there are many areas which I can delve into as
options and choose as a stable career. The dynamics of the industry is rapidly changing and

4EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
newer areas are constantly being discovered as ways to fulfill the requirements of the tourists and
this gives exciting and virtually endless opportunities that will require the employee to be
creative and come up with ideas that would meet the demands of the tourists. Managing different
events for the tourism sector is also another lucrative way to contribute to the industry and
actively promote the different aspects of the tourism sector to attract more people to the tourist
spots and avail the services of the hospitality industries that may be considered by me to become
a part of in the future.

5EMPLOYMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR
References
Chathoth, P.K., Ungson, G.R., Harrington, R.J. and Chan, E.S., 2016. Co-creation and higher
order customer engagement in hospitality and tourism services: A critical review. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(2), pp.222-245.
FitzPatrick, M., Davey, J., Muller, L. and Davey, H., 2013. Value-creating assets in tourism
management: Applying marketing's service-dominant logic in the hotel industry. Tourism
Management, 36, pp.86-98.
Lasten, E.F., Curtis, C., Upchurch, R.S. and Dammers, C., 2014. Measurement of traveler
expectations versus service gaps—The case of general aviation services in Aruba. Tourism
Management Perspectives, 12, pp.68-70.
McKercher, B. and Prideaux, B., 2014. Academic myths of tourism. Annals of Tourism
Research, 46, pp.16-28.
Sloan, P., Legrand, W. and Simons-Kaufmann, C., 2014. A survey of social entrepreneurial
community-based hospitality and tourism initiatives in developing economies: a new business
approach for industry. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 6(1), pp.51-61.
Urosevic, S., Karabasevic, D., Stanujkic, D. and Maksimovic, M., 2017. AN APPROACH TO
PERSONNEL SELECTION IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY BASED ON THE SWARA AND
THE WASPAS METHODS. Economic Computation & Economic Cybernetics Studies &
Research, 51(1).
Zaei, M.E. and Zaei, M.E., 2013. The impacts of tourism industry on host community. European
journal of tourism hospitality and research, 1(2), pp.12-21.