Students of Hue College of Tourism practice cooking

Many challenges

In his speech at a recent seminar on tourism human resource training in Hue, Prof. Dr. Dao Manh Hung, former Director of the Department of Training, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Training Association (VITAE), pointed out a worrying reality, which is that units in the tourism industry still face challenges in terms of lack of human resources. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole industry had about 4 million workers. Up to now, more than 90% of tourist accommodation establishments have been operating normally with more than 34,000 establishments and 70,000 rooms, but the number of workers in tourist accommodation establishments is only more than 30,000 people, many of whom have not been fully trained. The quality of human resources in the tourism industry in Vietnam still has many limitations compared to many countries in the region such as: Lack of labor, foreign language proficiency, limited management and administration capacity, especially high-level management.

Hue has the advantage of having many training facilities for tourism human resources, from intermediate to doctoral levels, but the picture of human resources is still worrying. According to data from the Department of Tourism, human resources in the tourism industry by 2020 reached about 31,000 people (equivalent to 2013), accounting for 5.5% of the total number of workers working in the economy , down 51% compared to 2019. Notably, the 2020 - 2022 period was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing Thua Thien Hue's tourism industry to almost freeze. Since then, there has been a major shift in the human resource structure from tourism to other economic sectors, with only 6.6 thousand tourism workers remaining in 2021. Tourism has reopened since March 2022 and recorded positive signals in the second half of 2022, helping tourism workers return, but this number is very modest and only reaches more than 7.4 thousand workers.

Tourism is an important service industry. Tourism uses a lot of direct and indirect labor with specific labor requirements, such as requiring a variety of qualifications from professional, high-skilled to simple labor. Each industry group, rank, and position requires practical skills, communication skills, foreign languages, the ability to handle situations, and extensive knowledge in many different fields...

According to forecast analysis results, the number of tourists to Thua Thien Hue in 2024 will reach more than 4.2 million visitors. The total number of workers in the tourism industry is forecast to need 35,751 people, of which 11,917 are direct workers and 23,814 are indirect workers. However, statistics from the Department of Tourism show that the tourism workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased sharply from 14,000 direct workers to more than 7,463 workers in 2022. This number of workers is still quite low compared to the forecast of 11,917 direct workers in 2024. Therefore, Thua Thien Hue tourism needs to attract and strengthen training and supplement the workforce in the tourism industry.

It is forecasted that by 2025, Hue tourism will welcome about 4.7 million visitors and need 41,323 workers in the tourism industry, including 13,774 direct workers and 27,549 indirect workers. By 2030, Thua Thien Hue tourism is expected to welcome about 8.2 million visitors and need 62,834 workers in the tourism industry, including 20,945 direct workers and 41,889 indirect workers. The above figures show that Hue tourism is not only concerned about the quality of human resources, but also the quantity.

Multiple solutions needed

To develop tourism human resources, especially high-quality human resources, to meet the requirements of tourism development, tourism human resource training plays an important role and more than ever requires close cooperation between all levels, sectors, training institutions, tourism businesses and the community.

To solve the problem of human resources, we must solve both the problem of quality and quantity. To meet the number of forecasts of the labor market, universities and colleges need to expand the scale of enrollment according to the needs of the labor market; research and open new majors according to the requirements of the trend. In addition, it is necessary to combine the levels of education to advise and guide students in a complete and effective way.

On the other hand, to ensure quantity, quality, balance in occupational structure and training level, to meet the requirements of competition and integration, it is necessary to have policies to encourage and promote the development of human resources and a comprehensive labor market; improve the quality of tourism human resources in terms of state management, business administration and tourism vocational skills; focus on training high-level management human resources and skilled workers; diversify training forms; promote socialization, encourage businesses to participate in training tourism human resources; enhance the capacity of training facilities, vocational training schools, etc. In addition, relevant departments and sectors need to allocate resources to training human resources for the tourism industry, creating favorable mechanisms for businesses to access these resources.

The leaders of Hue University of Tourism School shared that the connection between the school and businesses has been implemented for many years and achieved many results. The important thing is how to create the best internship and practical opportunities for students, so that students can grasp and practice professional skills in the business environment, meeting the increasingly high requirements that are always the desire of the training institution. This issue also requires better coordination mechanisms, which is the connection between 3 parties: the State - the school and the employer.

In addition, the tourism industry and related units also need to regularly open training classes and workshops to improve the qualifications and professionalize the tourism work of the human resources serving the profession and have an effective mechanism to attract those who used to work in the tourism industry to return.

Huynh Phuc