Human resource challenge for tourism sector

HANOI: Vietnam’s human resources for tourism are still insufficient both in number and quality, posing a great challenge for the industry in the context of tough competition and deeper international integration.

The country has 195 tourism training establishments including 65 universities, 55 colleges, 71 vocational schools, four job training centres and two establishments run by enterprises.

All of them can provide about 20,000 tourism workers yearly while Vietnam’s tourism sector requires 40,000, according to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism.

Moreover, among the tourism workforce, only 43% received professional training in tourism, and just 9.7% hold university and post-graduate degrees.

A report by the Tourism Development Research Institute shows that the quality and labour productivity in Vietnam’s tourism industry are still low.

For example, labour productivity at hotels in Vietnam is only one-fifteenth compared to Singapore, one-tenth compared to Japan and one-fifth compared to Malaysia.

As such, Vietnamese tourism workers have to face tough competition right on home ground.

A lot of tourism workers from countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore have come to Vietnam to work, and most four and five-star hotels in Vietnam are employing foreign workers.

With the strong recovery of tourism after the Covid-19 pandemic, many travel businesses have resumed operations and more and more upscale accommodation establishments are opening.

This has made the shortage of skilled tourism human resources more severe. Viet Nam NEWS/ANN