Tourism Talent Shortage in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Abstract

Worldwide recent crisis has proved the need of implementing new training programs that support tailored mentoring and improve employees’ soft skills. COVID-19 sanitary pandemic, Ukraine war, and the political uncertainty have triggered an unheard impact on global travel markets that will further perpetuate leaving a lasting footprint on the tourism industry. How the sector faces all these challenges by attracting and retaining tourists that have unexpected and new elevated expectations remain to be seen. Tourism managers are seeking to future-proof their businesses by incorporating high-tech initiatives and sustainable development protocols and practices. Hence, now the tourism industry’s biggest challenge is to confront the tourism workforce shortages.

Although it seems that new jobs are required and will need to be included into the DNA of the industry so as to face with the high-quality standards of this new panorama, the sector popularity is related to low-paid and qualified job positions. Hence, beyond all these considerations, it is mandatory to develop and train young generations within the digital skills for the effective and sustainable tourism management, bring up to light the future jobs that are here to stay, and provide practical and helpful insights of how to improve the soft skills for this long-life learning tourism workforce.

In the view of the current panorama, this chapter aims at addressing valuable insights and recommendations to handle with the staff shortages, to foster drivers to attract and retain generation Z to adhere to the tourism workforce, and to cope with new high-tech implementations. Finally, the chapter drafts some of the implications for tourism education.