Improving quality of tourism human resources in new context necessary: experts
Positive signals of tourism seen in many localities during the Lunar New Year Holiday, and especially the decision to officially reopen tourism activities under the "new normal" state are opening up many opportunities for the non-smoke industry to recover after a long hiatus caused by COVID-19.
During this recovery process, one of the key factors is the quality of human resources of the tourism and service industry.
As impact of the long-lasting pandemic, tourism human resources in Vietnam are facing many difficulties. Figures from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism show that, in 2020, tourism businesses had to cut their staff by 70%-80%. In 2021, the number of employees who still work full-time only accounted for 25% of that in 2020, while the number of employees who quit jobs or terminated labour contracts made up about 30%, those who temporarily quit jobs about 35%, and those who worked perfunctorily 10%.
In the "new normal", the trend of choosing products and destinations of holiday-makers has changed, requiring the tourism industry and its human resources to have necessary adaptations.
Hoang Nhan Chinh, head of the Secretariat of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board, said that the reopening of tourism activities brings about many opportunities; however, in reality, many tourism human resources have left their familiar jobs. Meanwhile, new personnel have not been properly trained, especially new skills that need to be supplemented such as those of instructing tourists on pandemic prevention and control measures, using new technologies, and applying digital transformation.
Affirming the importance of human resources in contributing to the creation of attractive tourism products, representatives of many businesses, experts and managers stressed the need to continue to focus on improving the quality of human resources by stepping up training and retraining.
It is very important to train knowledge about digital technology and digital transformation for those working in the non-smoke industry in the context of international economic integration and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
