Career Research Report: Tourism Industry Trends and Skills

This career research report focuses on the tourism industry, examining its current trends, challenges, and future prospects. The report begins with an introduction outlining the objective of understanding the skills, knowledge, and experience required for a graduate to enter the tourism sector. It then analyzes the impact of various factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, technology, and globalization, on the industry. The research incorporates both primary data collected from industry professionals and secondary data from academic sources. The report identifies essential skills such as time management, networking, flexibility, and customer service. It also highlights the importance of knowledge in areas like emotional intelligence and health prevention measures. An evaluation section assesses a specific job advertisement for a tour leader role in France, considering its suitability and benefits. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for continuous adaptation and skill development to succeed in the evolving tourism landscape, especially considering the impact of the pandemic. The appendices include primary research logs, evidence, and a graduate job advertisement.

CW1 – career research report

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Analysis and Application.................................................................................................................1
General trends which will impact on your chosen profession/industry.......................................1
The skills / knowledge and experience required..........................................................................3
Evaluation........................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................6
Primary research log and evidence..............................................................................................6
Graduate job advertisement.........................................................................................................7

Introduction
The aim of this report is to demonstrate an awareness of the knowledge, skills and
experience required by a graduate student to enter in a desired professional field of interest
(Dashper, 2020). The industry selected to be studied on, in this report is tourism industry. The
industry of tourism is of my interest and I am keen to be a part of this industry. This research
report is developed in to order to gain understanding regarding the trends that will have an
impact on the tourism industry and the skills and knowledge which will be required to be a part
of this industry.
Analysis and Application
The primary research in this report has been conducted by asking few questions about
tourism industry from 10 of investigator’s friends who are working in tourism industry; the
evidence of primary research is attached in Appendix. On the other hand, secondary research has
been conducted using articles and journals.
General trends which will impact on your chosen profession/industry
The industry selected for this particular research report is tourism industry and in order to
analyse the changes happening in this industry, primary and secondary data has been collected.
Tourism industry has been developed immensely in the last decade but due to current changes
occurred due to pandemic has changed the overview of tourism industry to a great extent.
According to the primary research which has been conducted, it has been seen that from
every 5 employees, 3 individuals has lost their jobs due to the crisis in the tourism industry. This
implies that on an average 60% individuals have lost their employment in tourism industry. This
immense loss of employment in tourism industry has been triggered due to loss of revenue and
operations. This will directly impact the future jobs which investigator is planning to applying
for. From the primary research, it has also found that almost every company in the industry of
tourism is struggling to even operate in current market situation. The pandemic caused by
Corona virus has discouraged the people to travel due to which core operations of this industry
are not even working. In this case where almost every organisation is struggling to even operate,
the situation of this industry will take several months to recover even after the pandemic is over
which will impact the future jobs in this industry.
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The primary research has provided few interesting insights and according to them the
people who still has their jobs in tourism industry possess few special skills which helps them to
retain their jobs in this industry. These skills include time management skill in the time of
stressful situation, innovation and strategy management and teamwork. In order to gain
employment in an industry such as tourism which has facing several issues and is currently
employing only few individuals, it is important to possess all these skills.
Besides the findings gained from primary research, there are various findings which are
also gained by the secondary research. According to Baum and Hai, (2020), the most influential
issue which has impacted the tourism industry in current scenario is the pandemic caused due to
COVID 19 virus. This factor has resulted into 60% decline in the international tourism in the
year 2020 and it has expected that this decline can be raised to 80% by December 2020. The
findings of the secondary data are similar which are gained from the primary as according to the
both sources approximately 60% of the employees employed has lost their jobs and almost every
organisation is struggling to survive.
From the points of view of Kim, Filimonau and Dickinson, (2020), technology has also
impacted the industry of tourism. The technology has helped tourism industry in replacing
expensive human labour with cheap technological labour. The factor of technology has helped
this industry in reducing the costs, improving the communication and providing satisfying guest
services by providing them quick and remote reservations. The technology factor has a high
impact when it comes to the jobs in this industry. By considering the high influence of
technology in this industry, it is mandatory to be well aware about the technology and devices
used by this industry in order to gain employment in tourism sector.
According to Tan, (2019), globalisation is also a factor which has influenced the tourism
industry along with the jobs in this industry. Globalisation has made the travel easier for people
and it has provided the access of global mobility. This has raised the revenue and operations in
this industry due to which jobs in this industry has been increased. But apart from the
affirmatives, globalisation in tourism industry is also the reason of terrorism, national security
threat and cultural erosion. So, it can be said globalisation plays an active positive role when it
comes to increase the jobs in tourism sector.
The above findings are gathered from the primary and secondary sources that provides the
general trends which is currently impacting tourism industry.
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The skills / knowledge and experience required
The findings gained from both primary and secondary research has resulted in providing few
skills and knowledge which are important for a candidate to possess in order to gain employment
in tourism industry. The summary of such personal skills is devised below:
Time management skills – This is a personal skill which allows an individual to manage the
time in such a way that every task assigned can be completed in the given time. This skill is most
important in the times of stress; an individual who possesses this skill can even have held reliable
to work under pressure situations and target oriented environment.
Networking skills – This skill is also significant for a candidate seeking job in tourism
industry. This skill helps organisation to have business even in the crises time which is the most
important skill in the recent times of pandemic.
Flexibility – It is important for a candidate to be flexible. The industry of tourism demands
candidates who are flexible to work in odd working hours and who are able to work in weekends.
In such a current pandemic, this skill can help a candidate to retain their position in marketplace.
Customer service skills – Tourism industry is a part of hospitability where there is no
exchange of products but there is an exchange of customer services which aim to satisfy
consumers. Candidates having such skill will help them to acquire customers which will result in
organisational welfare and profitability (Booyens, Motala and Ngandu, 2020).
Innovation and strategy management – This skill of innovation is most important in the
current scenario of pandemic. In current scenario, where acquisition of few hundred employees
are eve difficult to capture, it is most important for tourism industry to provide innovative
services that will ensure social distancing and proper sanitation of each tour.
Apart from the above skills, there are few areas of knowledge and expertise which are
important for a candidate who has interest to pursue profession in tourism industry. These area of
knowledge are:
Emotional intelligence – Candidates who tend seek employment in tourism industry must
have an expertise in the field of emotional intelligence so that candidates can show their empathy
towards customers and can satisfy them.
Health prevention measures – In the current scenario of pandemic, it is important for
employees working in tourism sector to have the relevant knowledge about health prevention
measures which can stop the spread of COVID 19.
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Evaluation
A job vacancy in tourism industry has been selected which requires the qualification of an
undergraduate degree with no compulsory experience required (Job advertisement, 2020). This
job advertisement is attached in Appendix. The reason behind selecting this job advert is that this
job role interests me. The job role of the selected advertisement is for tour leader in France. The
recruiter for this job role is PGL which is considered as an ideal recruiter in tourism industry.
This job interests my potential choice of travel and through this job I will get a chance to travel
in France.
I have considered number of jobs and from them, I have selected this job profile as my
preference is to be employed in a full time employment and this job provides me opportunity to
be employed in full time. This job adverts also do not require any prior experience due to which,
this job is ideal for me.
The job role which has been selected is for a tour leader which is not a new or emerging job
role but it is important to future proof this job role as this job role requires relocation to France.
There are few benefits which has persuaded me to select this job advertisement. These job roles
include designated placement coordinator, generous allowance along with onsite accommodation
and meals, free transport and the access to Northern France.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baum, T. and Hai, N.T.T., 2020. Hospitality, tourism, human rights and the impact of COVID-
19. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Booyens, I., Motala, S. and Ngandu, S., 2020. Tourism Innovation and Sustainability:
Implications for Skills Development. Sustainable Human Resource Management in
Tourism: African Perspectives, p.77.
Dashper, K., 2020. More‐than‐human emotions: Multispecies emotional labour in the tourism
industry. Gender, Work & Organization. 27(1). pp.24-40.
Kim, S., Filimonau, V. and Dickinson, J.E., 2020. The technology-evoked time use rebound
effect and its impact on pro-environmental consumer behaviour in tourism. Journal of
Sustainable Tourism. 28(2). pp.164-184.
Tan, R.S.E., 2019. The impact of globalisation on an emerging university in Tanzania, East
Africa (Doctoral dissertation, University of Otago).
Online
Job advertisement. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.leisurejobs.com/job/2693350/tour-leader-relocate-to-france/?
LinkSource=TopJob>
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APPENDIX
Primary research log and evidence
Questionnaire Frequency
Question 1. From how long you have been working in tourism industry?
Less than a year 8
1 – 3 years 1
3- 5 years 1
Question 2: Have you lost your job due to current pandemic caused due to
corona virus?
Yes 6
No 4
Question 3: Does your organisation is facing crisis to even survive in
marketplace?
Yes 9
No 1
Question 4: According to you, what are the skills possessed by the employees
who have not lost their jobs in tourism industry?
Time management in the time of stressful situation 4
Innovation and strategy management 3
Teamwork 3
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Graduate job advertisement
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