Tourism Labour Research Articles

Tourism with Energy Production and Consumption in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

Tourism development is always the leading development orientation in Vietnam and many countries. Has tourism developed sustainably and how can tourism develop sustainably? In the development process, tourism consumes more energy due to various tourism activities such as hotel accommodation and transportation. How does energy production affect tourism growth? This question is asked of any country and economic region. This study investigates the long-term cointegration relationship between tourism growth and primary energy consumption. This study aims to examine the factors affecting tourism growth in the Red River Delta, Vietnam such as the energy production, gasoline consumption, tourism labor, tourism investment capital and gross domestic product. The study uses a model with secondary data of 11 provinces from 2010-2020. The experimental results demonstrate that the independent variables explain 51% of the variation of the dependent variable and the rest (49%) can be explained by other causes. Research results show that 2 factors, labor (L), investment capital (IN), have a positive impact on tourism growth. Energy production (EN) has a negative impact on tourism growth in the Red River Delta. From there, the author will propose possible solutions that can ensure labor, investment capital and rational use of energy for tourism development.

Doing digital discipline: how Airbnb hosts engage with the digital platform

Digital platforms and activities permeate everyday lives in multiple ways. They organize different modes of movement, and sometimes, who moves and who stays still. This paper takes its empirical starting point by exploring Airbnb hosts, not only through the lens of tourism labour but also within the larger context of platform-mediated work. This paper pursues two aims in exploring how trust is produced and negotiated on the platform and how the platform serves to align host performances towards corporate interests. The paper argues that the affordances of the platform are designed to develop digital credibility, or digital capital, which in turn functions to discipline hosting performances, which become instrumentalized, measured, and controlled in accordance with business interests and corporate understandings of hosting performances. In doing this, the paper argues that the development of digital capital is integral to navigating the digital platform successfully and explores how digital capital is produced and instrumentalized through the development of profiles, the review system, and the superhost status. This paper contributes insights into the workings of a key platform for facilitating tourism but also adds to the current discussion on the organization of interactions in platform capitalism.

Communication skills in generation Z as future tourism employees

ABSTRACT Generation Z has recently entered the tourism labour market, where communication skills have been recognised as one of the most important soft skills. This paper investigates the communication skills of Generation Z as future tourism employees. Primary research was conducted using a questionnaire investigate five communication skill dimensions: written, oral, listening, digital, and non-verbal communication skills influencing the intention to improve these communication skills. The research methodology included Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) based on the PLS method. Findings indicate that nonverbal communication skills belong to the high importance-high performance group, while listening and digital communication skills belong to the low importance-high performance group. Written and oral communication skills belong to the low importance-low performance group. The paper’s contribution is an up to date conceptualisation of Generation Z’s communication skills and an examination of the most prominent communication skills among the Generation Z respondents.

Education for employability in the health tourism industry: A contribution of English language courses to soft skills development

Along with the growing demands on the tourism and hospitality market, soft skills have been increasingly stated as the main prerequisites for employability. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the health tourism students' perceptions of the soft skills they possess with an emphasis on the contribution of English language courses to their development. The data were collected employing the tailor-made questionnaire which addressed 12 soft skills deemed the most necessary for the inclusion in the (health) tourism labour market. Students perceived their soft skills to be at an average to a moderately high level of development. Likewise, an average to a moderately high level of the contribution of English language instruction was noted. These findings indicate that there is much room for improvement and can be informative for various stakeholders in the education process. On the one hand, the study has revealed that the language courses have a favourable impact on soft skills development, and on the other, it has produced a relatively good representation of the enhancements to be made in this regard.

Unveiling the truth about tourism labour precarity in Argentinian cities

PurposeThis paper aims to study the role of tourism specialisation on tourism labour precarity in Argentinian cities, considering urban primacy.Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose an econometric model that iterates between alternative labour precarity measures explained by the economic sector (tourism, rest of services and rest of economy) and tourism specialisation at the city level. They build three geographical groups based on Argentinian urban agglomerates: the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, tourism specialised cities and non-tourism specialised cities. The authors further distinguish between big and small cities according to their urban primacy. The main sources of data are the Permanent Household Survey and the Hotel Occupancy Survey from the Argentinian National Statistics and Census Institute for the period 2007–2017.FindingsThe authors find that as tourism specialisation grows, the incidence of precarious labour conditions in tourism goes down. Working in this sector increases the chances of having a precarious job, particularly for non-legal outcome variables. However, tourism specialisation and urban primacy generate a mitigating effect on these negative results.Originality/valueThe authors focus on tourism labour conditions in Argentinian cities, using different measures of labour precarity from a legal perspective, (namely, legal informality) and a non-legal one (including productive informality, part-time work and non-permanent occupation). The authors follow an innovative approach to this matter in the tourism sector, as they consider both tourism specialisation at the city level and urban primacy. This is the first article addressing these issues not only for Argentina but also for Latin America.

Coping with precarity in the tourism performing arts industry: a case study of China’s Wa entertainers

This article examines the precarious work experiences and coping tactics of entertainers in China’s tourism performing arts (TPAs), who are also tourism labour migrants (TLMs). Focusing on a particular ethnic group, Wa entertainers (WEs), this article aims to highlight how TLMs sustain their careers and fight for decent work. Qualitive methods were applied to investigate entertainers in a neglected sector of the tourism industry. The findings show that entertainers face two main aspects of precarity: labour relations and job attributes. Inspired by the precarious TPA work, WEs develop micro-tactics to resist, namely, they have suitable geographical mobility choices and actively participate in skilling and learning. Thus, WEs become more capacitated to switch smoothly between different jobs to sustain a broader career in tourism-oriented sectors. This article offers critical insights into the capability development of tourism practitioners. It reflects on a vernacular, grassroots redefinition of sustainability with respect to decent work, in which a stable or predictable career pathway may not be the ultimate purpose for grassroots TLMs.

Measuring risks and vulnerability of tourism to the COVID-19 crisis in the context of extreme uncertainty: The case of the Balearic Islands

The COVID-19 crisis is dramatically affecting the world economy and, particularly, the tourism sector. In the context of extreme uncertainty, the use of probabilistic forecasting models is especially suitable. We use Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the outcomes of four possible tourism demand recovery scenarios in the Balearic Islands, which are further used to measure the risks and vulnerability of Balearic economy to the COVID-19 crisis. Our results show that fear of contagion and loss of income in tourism emitting countries will result in a maximum 89% drop in arrivals in the Balearic Islands in 2020.Given that most tourism-related occupations are not highly skilled and are characterized by lower salaries, there are greater risks of loss of welfare, especially for women, who are a major share of the tourism labour force.The model shows important differences among minimum, average and maximum estimates for tourism sector production in 2021, reflecting considerable uncertainty regarding the speed of the sector's recovery. The results serve as a basis to prepare a range of policies to reduce destination vulnerability under different crisis outcomes.

Tourism Supply Efficiency: An Analysis of Countries in the Asia-Pacific Region

The objective of this research is to analyze the factors affecting the tourism supply and its efficiency of the tourism supply for countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The method uses the stochastic frontier with Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) analyzed by Frontier software. 4.1. The data were collected from panel data from 2010 - 2019 for 23 countries. The results of the study revealed that 1) Tourism investment from the private sector and timing factors positively affect the tourism supply of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, while the tourism labor value factor has a negative effect on the tourism supply of countries in the region 2) For the technical performance measurement of tourism supply in each sub-region in the Asia-Pacific region, the average is between 0.387 and 0.657. East Asia shows the highest technical efficiency in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau and Mongolia while South Asia has the lowest technical efficiency in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, respectively.

Women’s economic empowerment and COVID-19: the case of vulnerable women with intersectional identities in Indonesia and Vietnam

In recent decades, ASEAN has seen significant progress in gender equality and women’s empowerment. However, advances have not been even and vulnerable women with a range of intersectional identities have not benefited to the same extent as more privileged women or their male counterparts. Moreover, despite ASEAN’s much-lauded success in COVID-19 prevention and containment, the economic gains that had been achieved for women and girls are rapidly losing ground. Disruptions in the tourism sector, labour migration, and international trade have had a devastating economic impact on vulnerable populations, while innovations and new implementation approaches have provided some relief for low-income communities. This paper describes the COVID-19 economic fallout for women homeworkers and labour migrants engaged in informal jobs in Indonesia and low-income ethnic minority women in agriculture and tourism sectors in north-west Vietnam. It discusses early experiences and learning on pivoting projects, funded by the Government of Australia, to be COVID-19 responsive and contribute to longer-term recovery.

The Essential Managerial Competencies for Tourism and Hospitality Graduates: From the Perspective of Tourism and Hospitality Experts in Egypt

When identifying and knowing the managerial competencies needed by the industry from fresh graduates and employees, it will be easy for educational institutions to prepare graduates for future entry-level managerial roles by adapting the curriculum according to industry expectations and through training programs. Therefore, this research aims to identify the essential managerial competencies needed from the tourism and hospitality industry graduates for the tourism labor market in Egypt. A Delphi technique was utilized in this research for collecting data from a group of sixty (60) experts and professionals from different tourism and hospitality sectors. Fifty- three (53) of the sixty (60) participants successfully completed the Delphi study. Three rounds of Delphi were conducted in almost thirteen weeks. For processing and analyzing collected data, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 has been utilized. Results identified four managerial competencies (problem-solving, decision making, client focus, and teamwork) as the most essential competencies with a consensus above 80%. Depending on the findings, it suggests that the tourism and hospitality curriculum can be modified to add these competencies.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS A CAREER IN TOURISM INDUSTRY: THE CASE OF INDONESIA

As a world-class tourism destination, Indonesia is facing challenges in providing competent tourism human capital. Currently, the majority of tourism labor in Indonesia are low levels of education and only a few of them are graduated from higher education. Empirically, numerous studies suggest that many graduates from various tourism schools in several countries preferred to not opt for the tourism careers. This study aims to discover and analyze the perceptions and attitudes of final year students majoring in tourism and hospitality in Indonesia to pursue a career in the tourism industry. Using online distributed questionnaire through snowball sampling method, this study obtained 422 completed responses of tourism and hospitality undergraduates from Jakarta, Bandung, Lombok, Makassar, Palembang, Bali, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, and Batam. The collected data then analyzed by Importance Performance Analysis and cross-tabulation analysis. This study found that the career advancement and salaries were two factors in the industry considered as important factors but got a bad perception. However, the nature of work of tourism industry which offering enjoyable and fun environment are considered important and earned positive perception. This study also presents some impli­cations, mainly for the tourism industry in Indonesia.

From Liminal Labor to Decent Work: A Human-Centered Perspective on Sustainable Tourism Employment

In its sustainable tourism agenda for 2030, the UN World Tourism Organization has embraced three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One of these, specifically SDG 8, highlights the need to pursue decent work and growth. Nevertheless, despite the growing recognition of this target and although there is a growing number of writings lamenting the precarity characterizing many tourism-related jobs, the topic of tourism-related work continues to receive sparse attention in the considerable volume of academic literature on tourism and sustainability. This paper attempts to redress this neglect. First, by providing a review of extant studies on tourism labor, we seek to explain why this research lacuna continues to exist. We then examine organizational and technological aspects of tourism governance, which hinder attempts to establish decent work and improve dignity in the tourism industry worldwide. By acknowledging the volatile and liminal status of tourism work and future labor market prospects, we arrive at the following question: what should sustainable tourism work look like? This leads us to suggest that the development of a human-centered research agenda, which focuses on workers’ agency and resources, offers a promising research avenue for expanding on the tourism and sustainability research agenda.

РЫНОК ТРУДА СТРАН АСЕАН : ЭФФЕКТЫ ПАНДЕМИИ COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant negative impact on the world of work. The regime of isolation and restrictions on movement, including between countries, leads to disruptions in work processes. In the case of the ASEAN countries, whose economies have become increasingly integrated into the global economy over the past decade, the vulnerability of the labor market increases due to the dependence of the region's economies on tourism, exports, and international labor migration.

Active harmonization of higher education bachelor study programme in the area of trade, tourism and services with the labor market dynamics

The main purpose of our paper is to highlight the interplay between the demands of the workforce market from Hunedoara County and the competences of graduates from The Economy of Trade, Tourism and Services (ETTS) Bachelor study programme. As far as the methodology of the paper is concerned, we used a qualitative description approach that comprises manifold aspects: the statistical analysis of trade and tourism branches from the V West Region in correlation with the labor market; job opportunities analysis before and after the pandemic; cognitive and behavioral competences achieved by graduates from the ETTS programmeme in order to become well trained specialists in their area of interest. The results of our investigations led us to the following conclusions: the pandemic brought about continuous oscillations in the trade and tourism labor markets in such a way that, having skills in both fields, graduates from the ETTS programmeme could get compensation of the declining trend of available jobs in the hospitality industry by the increase of vacant jobs within the the online commerce; on the other hand, Hunedoara Conty – an area with various types of tourism – mountain, historical, religious tourism etc. – has witnessed an upsurge in the number of tourists in spite of the pandemic.

Does the Curricula of Tourism Studies in Higher Education Meet the Educational and Occupational Needs of the Tourism Labour Market?

The aim of this study is to address the following questions:(1) Is there a gap between the curricula taught in tourism and hotels faculties and the knowledge and skills required in the tourism labour market?, and (2)Do the students' knowledge and skills acquired during their study in a tourism and hotels faculties qualify them to join the tourism labour market. A qualitative approach is employed in the current study to answer the research questions. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were used in the present research. The study findings revealed the existence of a gap between the curricula that have been taught in tourism faculties and the tourism labour market requirements. Furthermore, the curricula have not met the requirements of the tourism labour market and graduates' needs. Some managerial implications were provided in this research so that tourism education in Egypt can use them as a guide when developing the curricula of educational tourism to meet the requirements of the tourism labour market. The research contributes to the existing knowledge by employing an approach to in-depth examine to what extent there is a gap between the curricula taught in the tourism educational faculties and the knowledge and skills required in the tourism labour market.

Determinants of tourism labor mobility – The case of tourism companies in Khanh Hoa province

Tourism labor mobility has drawn keen interest of different parties as its role to tourism development in general and individual well-being in particular. With the purpose to investigate the current situation of labor mobility in tourism company in Vietnam, this study carried out survey of 220 staff in 30 tourism companies in Khanh Hoa province. The results show evidences of active labor mobility in tourism companies, espcially in hotel and travel sectors. The more experiences a person has, the more mobilized they are, especially upward occupational mobility. Five factors were found to explain for labor mobility in Khanh Hoa province, in which the highest importance is assigned to job satisfaction and organization culture. The findings provide useful managerial implications for better human resource development in Khanh Hoa tourism companies.

Dynamic capability building and social upgrading in tourism - Potentials and limits of sustainability standards

The tourism sector is often characterized by precarious working conditions. With the aim of promoting sustainable business practices and addressing labour concerns, many tourism service providers are keen to set and enforce sustainability standards in their value chains. However, there is a contested debate on the local impacts of voluntary standards. This paper focuses on tourism labour and investigates how sustainability standards can contribute to capability building and social upgrading processes at the firm-level. It argues that most research on sustainability standards has analysed the “visible” outcomes of standard implementations while a process-based perspective is largely missing. The paper addresses this gap through a novel approach and makes both theoretical and empirical contributions. Conceptually, it integrates the dynamic capabilities approach into global value chain (GVC) research. This enhances current conceptualisations of capabilities and the understanding of upgrading processes within GVCs. Empirically, the paper investigates the South African standard “Fair Trade in Tourism” through a longitudinal, mixed-methods research design that extended over a period of eight years. The findings show how sustainability standards in tourism can contribute to capability building and upgrading at the firm-level. The paper concludes by arguing that policy makers should better resource local standard-setting organisations.

The perception of employees about the regulatory environment in the tourism industry: Insights from Nepal

This paper aims to explore the perceptions of tourism employees on the role of regulatory environment including the government in promoting employees’ welfare. Despite a need for an examination of employees’ voice in the formulation of employment policies and in their implementation by a government, no or very little literature specifically dealing with this topic has been found during the present study. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap. Based on an in-depth semi-structured interview with hotel and airline employees in Kathmandu (Nepal), this paper hammers out three key aspects of the regulatory environment that may affect employees’ welfare, viz., efficiency of labour law, government’s attitude towards tourism labour, and judicial process and system. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for the tourism industry as well as for the government in developing countries.

The Importance of Intercultural Communicative Competences for Tourism Labour Market: Students’ Views and their Self-Assessment

Abstract The present paper is founded on two pillars. Firstly, it is one of the current trends in education worldwide, i.e. to connect theory and practice. Secondly, it is the need to be interculturally competent speakers of a foreign language in today’s globalized world of massive migration flows and signs of increasing ethnocentrism. Based upon these two requirements, the ability to communicate in a FL effectively and interculturally appropriately in the tourism industry is a must, since being employed in whichever of its sectors means encountering other cultures on a daily basis. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to find out undergraduate tourism students’ opinion on the importance of intercultural communicative competences for their future profession as well as their self-assessment in the given field. The findings of the research, which are to be compared to employers’ needs, revealed that there is considerable difference between the respondents’ views on the significance of the investigated issues and their self-esteem.

Employee Engagement and Commitment, Communication Skills and Talent Management Competencies of Tourism Professionals

In this research undertaking, results of the research findings about the Employee Engagement and Commitment, Communication Skills and Talent Management Competencies of Tourism Professionals in Cairo, Egypt are presented regarding its extent, how commendable are their communication skills, and the extent of their Talent Management Competencies (TMC), and further looked into whether or not there are significant correlations between and among the independent variables. The tourism professionals who were the respondents of the study comprised of the Travel Agents, Academic Professionals, Hotel Managers, Tour Operators, Event & Conference Organizers, Tour Guides, Executive Chefs, and PR Managers in Cairo, Egypt. The research method used in this research undertaking is descriptive correlational; a questionnaire was used as a data collection method which was distributed to tourism professionals, and utilizing the SPSS statistical software with the Mean to determine the extent, to determine the significance of correlation between and among the paired variables, Pearson r was used, to determine the significance of difference between the dependent and independent variables, Mann Whitney U Test and Kruskal-Wallis Test were used. The conduct of this research investigation is an important issue, and was considered by the researchers as very meaningful and important to explore internationally and specifically in Cairo, Egypt in particular, since the findings of this research study may lead to the introduction of new programs and curriculum for Tourism and hospitality industry, the encouragement of professional staff to enhance the purposes of work in tourism, the human resources potential management into companies, enabling continuous professional training and employees to advance in their careers and to create careers in the field of tourism and hospitality industry. Moreover, the results of this research endeavor will be very essential for tourism professionals considering Tourism’s contribution to global trade and economic growth, its contribution in promoting socioeconomic growth and development, sustainable tourism development, advancing tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction and development, promoting employment through fostering knowledge, education and capacity-building, and in creating synergies and partnership across tourism sectors. The result showed a great extent on the identified indicators, except on Talent management competencies; the independent variables, when correlated, showed that they do not influence each one’s extent, except between Engagement and Commitment and their Communication Skills; which may imply that the tourism professionals maybe more engaged and committed if they have commendable communication skills as they work in the tourism industry to accommodate their clients. On the other hand, no significant differences exist in the Tourism Professionals’ Engagement and Commitment (EC), Communication Skills and Talent Management Competencies (TMC) when categorized in terms of their educational qualification, marital status and sector where they are employed. Conclusively, results of this research undertaking will provide information and research data for leaders and managers, human resource managers and/or human resource specialists working in the human resources department of selected tourism industries, agencies, and organizations concerned to design programs and activities to increase interest in Tourism Labor and cope with the challenge of overcoming the uncertainties towards tourism employment, most specifically on socio-cultural issues, create a strong coordination with curriculum specialists to embed in their tourism curriculum an emphasis of the possibilities of employment in the industry for young school-leavers, the working conditions, career opportunities, diversity, international exposure, remuneration, and other factors. For future research directions, the researchers recommend future researchers to look into the evaluation of professional management techniques that are used in the hospitality sectors with focus on Hospitality and Customer Satisfaction, Tourism and Hospitality Marketing, Hospitality Management, Marketing and Service Quality Management, Foodservice Consumer Choice and Services Strategies, Strategic Management in the Hospitality Industry, Hospitality Marketing and Service Experience and Human Resource Management. Keywords: Tourism Professionals, Engagement, Commitment, Communication Skills, Talent Management Competencies DOI : 10.7176/JTHS/40-05