Hanoi deals with human resources shortage in tourism industry

At a festival providing information to students and parents about human resources training in the fields of culture, sports and tourism (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi has deployed measures to deal with a shortage in human resources, which has been a problem facing the tourism sector, especially amid the strong recovery of the industry.

In the first six months of this year, the capital city welcomed about 14.05 million visitors, including 3.14 million foreigners, respective rises of 13.7% and 52.6% year on year.

Total earnings from tourism activities were estimated at 55.38 trillion VND (2.17 billion USD), up 22.8% year on year.The city has introduced many new tourism products, including night tours in Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Hoa Lo Prison, Vietnam Literature Museum, Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature) and Ngoc Son Temple, as well as pedestrians’ spaces at Son Tay Ancient Citadel, Dao Ngoc-Ngu Xa, Tran Nhan Tong street, and a number of community-based tourism sites.

At the same time, the municipal Department of Tourism has strengthened cooperation with other localities in developing tours and routes such as the Hanoi - Ha Nam - Ninh Binh spiritual - cultural route, Hanoi - Son La, and Hanoi - Lao Cai - Lai Chau exploring tours.

However, the city has encountered difficulties in both quality and number of human resources for the sector, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic which drove a large number of tourism personnel to other sectors.

Experts noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the hotel industry to lose about 20 - 30% of its employees, putting it in a labour shortage situation.

Besides the shortage of specialised labour in the tourism industry, the tourism market is also facing a more important problem, which is a lack of development direction and vision of many tourism businesses, especially among small and micro enterprises.

Nhu Thi Ngan, General Director of Hanoi Tourism JSC pointed to the need for solutions to develop human resources in the new period, which she said requires the coordination of all stakeholders including State agencies, training facilities, businesses, experts, scientists and labourers themselves.

Ngan underlined the need for State agencies to provide policy support to encourage labourers to return to the tourism sector in the post-pandemic period, while calling for businesses’ engagement in human resources training activities.

She advised travel firms to consider on-the-job training and private training based on their own demands and goals.

The Hanoi tourism sector has also taken efforts to provide training to different workforces engaging in the industry, including drivers and those working at accommodation facilities and community-based tourism sites.

The Department of Tourism has organised many seminars on civilised tourism to local communities in major tourist sites in Soc Son, Me Linh, Thanh Tri, Thanh Oai, My Duc and Thach That.

Director of the department Dang Huong Giang said that the department has designed many measures to attract high-quality personnel to the tourism industry such as linking with international organisations and foreign tourism training service providers, mobilising resources for tourism human resources training, and strengthening cooperation among the State, training facilities and businesses.

Particularly, the city has worked to foster the coordination among local tourism training facilities, travel firms and reputable international tourism training organisations, thus steps by steps strengthening human resources provision for the industry, Giang added./.