Human resources for peak summer tourist season: Quality...

A tour guide training session of Hanoi College of Commerce and Tourism.

Lack of quality personnel

After the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism industry has faced many challenges, including a shortage of human resources. As tourism gradually recovers, the issue of improving the quality of human resources is urgently raised.

According to travel and accommodation units, from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024, the number of tourists will increase, and the demand for labor recruitment will be quite large. The peak summer tourist season is also creating a lot of pressure on units regarding this issue.

Director of VietSense Travel Company Nguyen Van Tai said that to welcome the peak summer season, the company has recruited many employees for sales positions in the outbound tourism and communications and marketing sectors. However, up to now, these positions have not found the desired personnel.

“We have tried many jobs, but many of them have left because they did not meet the requirements of the job. There are not many experienced and long-term employees, while students who have just graduated from the Tourism industry are still lacking in qualifications and skills,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Tai.

According to Director of Trang An Travel Company Nguyen Huu Cuong, before the peak season, the company recruited more sales staff in the foreign guest reception department (inbound) and sales positions good at English and Chinese to expand the market in Europe and China. Currently, the number of employees of the unit still changes frequently because many positions are recruited and then transferred.

In the accommodation sector, many units are lacking labor in the positions of room, room and kitchen. Head of Sales Department of Paragon Resort (Ba Vi district) Nguyen Thi Hue said that the unit is currently lacking many service and kitchen positions.

Ms. Hoang Thu Hien, owner of a homestay chain in Ha Long city ( Quang Ninh province), shared that during the peak summer tourist season, the number of guests booking rooms increases, leading to a high demand for cleaning and housekeeping, while the labor force is currently not much. "Because of the lack of staff, homestay owners often have to clean rooms for guests themselves," Ms. Hoang Thu Hien said.

Rapidly replenish skilled labor

To solve the above problem, many units have organized recruitment of students from tourism training schools. However, due to the increasingly high demand for work, although the input human resources have been supplemented, the quality is still a difficult problem.

According to Nguyen Van Tai, Director of VietSense Travel Company, after recruitment, in order for employees to adapt to the job, the company often has to organize retraining. “We require employees in the communications and marketing departments to know how to make videos , create content on digital platforms, and apply artificial intelligence to promote products. To do this well, the company must train many skills for employees,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Tai.

At the workshop “Training and using international standard tourism human resources in the current period” held last April in Hanoi, tourism managers and experts shared the same opinion that Vietnam’s tourism human resources are in crisis, and the quality of training has not met the reality.

According to the Vietnam Tourism Training Association, up to now, the country has 195 tourism training establishments, with about 20,000 students graduating each year, including about 1,800 university and college students.

Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Training Association Dao Manh Hung acknowledged that there is no shortage of labor in the tourism industry, but the quality has not yet met the demand. Many graduates not only lack skills, but are also weak in foreign languages and technology.

Proposing a solution, Dr. Nguyen Van Luu (former officer of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration) said that training facilities should closely cooperate with reputable travel companies to equip students with practical knowledge to meet requirements.

From a training perspective, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Hong Long, Head of the Department of Tourism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) suggested that management agencies orient tourism careers according to specific standards, from which schools can build quality training models.

Tourism is entering the peak summer season for domestic tourists. At this time, tourism businesses are in great need of good human resources. According to Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association Vu The Binh, during the peak summer tourism season, many localities are expected to welcome a large number of tourists, and services will be overloaded. Tourism and service businesses need to quickly add personnel with professional skills and civilized behavior skills, ensuring the best experience for tourists.

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