Travel, tourism sector seen needing to beef up workforce

The Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) moves to further boost employment in the local travel and tourism industry to cater to the expected surge in international arrivals and domestic demand over the next five years.

The target was to increase employment in the tourism and other related sectors by 5 percent. Last year, there were only five million Filipinos employed by the industry, representing a growth rate of 3.5 percent year-on-year, TCP executive vice president Aileen Clemente said.

“At present only one in nine employed Filipinos is working in the tourism industry.  That is a very low number considering that the industry is very human resource-intensive.  Tourism is all about person-to-person interaction,” Clemente said.

“If we want tourist arrivals in the country to breach the 10-million mark and domestic tourism to hit 60 million over the next five years, there has to be ample opportunities for employment within the industry.  This is just as important as developing the infrastructure in the country’s tourism destinations,” Clemente added.

To boost employment within the tourism industry, Clemente said TCP would work with the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) to see how tourism-related skills could be further integrated into their programs.

Clemente said colleges and universities needed to include tourism-related subjects in their curriculum, while Tesda would have to expand its presence and provide skills training to all barangays.

On their part, Clemente said TCP would start this year an annual job fair program in several key cities to match tourism industry players with individuals looking be part of the industry.

Clemente said the TCP would take the lead in creating a tourism employment database through a series of job fairs which it was planning to start this year.

“We will be matching at least 50 tourism companies each from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao with potential new hires through the jobs fair.  Individuals will have to submit their resumes online to the TCP and those who are qualified will be sent invitations,” Clemente said. Amy R. Remo