Labor in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Skills, Ethics, Issues, and Rights

Abdallah M. Elshaer, Asmaa M. Marzouk, Asmaa M. Marzouk

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429877599
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Personalmanagement

An organization's workforce is arguably the greatest asset of any organization, and tourism and hospitality is an extremely labor-intensive industry. This volume takes an in-depth look at workforce issues in the tourism and hospitality industry, focusing on labor skills, ethics, rights, and more. It examines manpower planning beyond forecasting estimates to include investigative techniques in a way that offers insight for economic planning in both tourism and tourism education. The authors use economic, sociological, and psychological analysis and take a pragmatic stance on the challenges of the workforce.

The authors look at the specifics of the labor market of the tourism and hospitality industry, discussing the current status of the industry's organizations and how they are suffering labor shortages (qualitative or quantitative) and constant turnover—resulting in significant costs to organizations. Topics such as low wages and overdependence on tipping, workforce diversity, technological change resistance, and seasonality issues, and more are examined. The volume also provides a section on labor rights in the tourism and hospitality industry, which looks at labor trafficking and issues in social justice and human rights.

Key features:

• Provides an in-depth understanding of tourism employment

• Presents a critical analysis of labor supply and demand in the tourism and hospitality industries

• Considers the need for specific labor skills and training

• Examines the reasons for labor shortages and turnover in the tourism and hospitality industry

• Discusses labor ethics and social responsibility in hospitality/tourism organizations

PART I
Labor Skills

CHAPTER 1

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN EMPLOYMENT CREATION

“Tourism grants the poorest of the poor the simplest means to live in dignity. It puts money in the hand of petty shop-keepers, drivers, beach vendors, photo makers, and other miserable works.”

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The history of tourism and hospitality industry extends for thousands of years. Tourism and hospitality industry represents one of the most dynamic and growing industries in countries all over the world. Specifically, the hospitality industry has existed for almost 4000 years. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO, 2010), international tourism includes business and professional travel, visiting friends and relatives, religious travel, and health treatments of travelers crossing a border and spending one or more nights in the host country. Thus, the movement of guests and customers affected the revenue of global hotel industry, in particular, to touch US $553.8 billion in 2018 (Statista, 2017). Teng (2013) described the hospitality industry as an enterprise with a purpose to provide service and products in order to satisfy a full range of needs such as food, beverages, and accommodations. In details, the hospitality industry consists of various service activities that include accommodation, restaurants, event planning, theme parks, transportation, cruise lines, and others.

The various components of the hospitality industry in addition to specific segments of transport, travel agencies, and tour operators are all considered by most organizations to belong to the “tourism-characteristic industries” and are therefore subsumed under tourism. Such various activities involve numerous guest–host interactions that involve the needs of a diverse group of people (Teng, 2013). Therefore, many groups of employees and workers run these establishments with various responsibilities, such as directors of operations, management or leadership roles, hosting and service, facility maintenance, and marketing positions (Ruizalba et al., 2014).

Generally, tourism is considered an extremely labor intensive and a significant source of employment. Although some academics consider tourism and hospitality jobs are characterized by low-status jobs with low payments and poor working conditions, the industry having a higher amount of human capital invested than it is in other industries (Baum, 1996). It is among the world’s top creators of jobs requiring varying degrees of skills and allows for quick entry into the workforce for youth, women, and migrant workers.

It accounts for 30% of the world’s export service (ILO, 2010). Consequently, the tourism industry and its informal components offer a significant number of employment opportunities to job seekers with little skills or with or no formal training and who do not want to be involved in long-term employment commitments (e.g., students). In addition, the tourism industry provides opportunities for migrants to find jobs as well as for workers who have family responsibilities. Tourism can provide an opportunity for those facing significant social and capability disadvantages in a way that is not always offered by other environments.

Hence, the tourism industry employs a significant number of workforce worldwide (Grobelna, 2015). As a result, concerning the contribution to international gross domestic product (GDP) and the number of jobs creation, the tourism industry has already outpaced other industries, such as agricultural science, mining, and even retail (Vasquez, 2014). For example, in the Pacific, tourism contributes greatly to GDP. In Fiji, the sector offered to employ over 40,000 people and contributed significantly to foreign exchange savings. In 2005, US $1 million created about 63 jobs in Fiji (Narayan et al., 2010). In Egypt, every million dollars invested in hotels created 18 direct and 12 indirect jobs (Egyptian National Competitiveness Council, 2008).

According to Vasquez (2014), the travel, tourism and hospitality economy contribute in pumping trillions of dollars to the international GDP. At a global level, experts and industry professionals anticipate profits and revenues from the tourism and hospitality industry will continue to grow. The hospitality and tourism industry creates many job opportunities around the globe and extensively contributes to many countries’ GDP.

1.2 THE INDUSTRY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD’S ECONOMY

Tourism is now world’s largest industry with its wide range of constituent sub-sectors and various activities. The tourism and hospitality industry as a whole (of which the hospitality industry is a part) remains one of the world’s most important drivers of economic growth and development, accounting for nearly 9% of worldwide GDP (ILO, 2010).

Travel and Tourism is an export sector, attracting foreign currency to a country in the form of international guests and customers. In 2016, global visitor exports accounted for 6.6% of total world exports (a total of US $1.4 trillion) and almost 30% of total world services exports (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2017). So, the economy flourish and tourism are intrinsically correlated to each other as tourism and hospitality organizations have long-term socioeconomic impacts on the host economy and community regarding the employment and community development branch (Keyser, 2002). Being a socioeconomic phenomenon, tourism acts both as an engine of economic development and a social force, impacting a wide range of other industries; from the demand-side, tourism refers to the activities of guests and their role in the acquisition of goods and services. At the same time, tourism can also be viewed from the supply side. According to World Travel and Tourism Council (2017), travel and Tourism’s impact includes the movement of people for both leisure and business, domestically and internationally. So, it will then be understood as the set of service and productive activities that cater mainly to guests and customers (WTO and ILO, 2014). In 2016, 76.8% of all travelers spend was as a result of leisure purpose, compared to 23.2% from business travel. The sector contributed US $7.6 trillion to the global economy. This was equal to 10.2% of the world’s GDP.

In 2017, the total contribution of Travel and Tourism to the world’s economy is expected to grow by 3.5% (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2017). Moreover, it is much of the labor-intensive type of industry as it offers many work opportunities for a large number of people. Consequently, today the world tourism industry is becoming a major attraction for job seekers. The tourism impacts on employment go beyond employment in sectors, in which tourists directly spending their money, such as lodging establishments, restaurants, recreation and entertainment premises, and airlines. The establishments which receive tourists also buy goods and services from other sectors that generate indirect employment in those sectors through multiplier effect (Keyser, 2002). Generally, the significance of the tourism industry for economic development, employment creation, and poverty alleviation is being increasingly recognized. The tourism sector has experienced the fastest growth rate in comparison to other sectors of the global economy in recent years and is reported to account “for more than one-third of the total global services trade” (ILO, 2011). Figure 1.1 shows the tourism significance in countries’ development.

FIGURE 1.1 The tourism significance in economic development.

Source: The Authors.

1.3 POTENTIAL OF TOURISM IN CATERING EMPLOYMENT

Tourism and hospitality industry is highly labor-intensive and, numerically, a significant source of employment (Fig. 1.1). People are clearly central to the effective operation and further development of the tourism industries as a whole. As a service industry, many tourism products include people as an integral part of the expertise offered, whether as performers or as members of the cultural environment (WTO and ILO, 2014). Thus, tourism has a significant effect on those areas that has surplus labor. It has a great influence on local population employment. Thus, there is a positive relationship between the growth of tourism and creating employment opportunities, and this helps in minimizing the extremities of poverty. The industry’s projected growth and development will help stimulate economic gains that are critically needed around the world. Economic development means jobs, and jobs bring much more than a paycheck: they bring dignity to individuals, tax revenue to governments, new consumers to businesses, and invested citizens to communities. Thus, the industry outlook brings hope not only to hospitality sector businesses but also to each destination in which industry businesses thrive.

In the accommodation industry, for instance, globally there is an average of one employee for each hotel room. A new job created in the hospitality industry generates 1.5 jobs along the supply chain in the tourism-related economy, with a proportionate economic help to local communities (ILO, 2010; WTO, 1997). Further, it also stimulates the growth of employment in other industries. There are three workers indirectly dependent on each person working in hotels, such as textile workers, laundry workers, gardeners, shop staff for souvenirs and others, as well as airport employees.

Taking its wider indirect and induced impacts into account, in 2016, travel and tourism directly contributed US $2.3 trillion and 109 million jobs worldwide (approximately 1 in 10 of all jobs). The sector contributed US $7.6 trillion to the global economy and supported 292 million jobs in 2016 (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2017). More than 255 million people around the world currently work in the sector, and the industry will contribute a total of 296 million to global employment by 2019 (ILO, 2011), and by 2022, travel and tourism will employ 328 million people—creating 73 million new jobs (ILO, 2010). Such statistics indicate that tourism industry is the world’s largest employer, the industry is entering an exciting phase. In addition, while other industries struggle to recover from the global economic downturn, tourism industry has proved resilient. The hotel sector bounced back quickly from its 2009 decline, despite the crisis, global employment in the tou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About the Authors
• Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Book Series
• About the Series Editor
• Table of Contents
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I: Labor Skills
• Part II: Labor Ethics
• Part III: Labor Issues
• Part IV: Labor Rights
• Index