Vietnam tourism industry seriously lacks labourers

It is estimated that by 2010, Vietnam will receive 5.5-6mil foreign travelers and 25-26mil domestic tourists.

By that time, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the demand for workers in tourism will be very high. Vietnam’s tourism industry will need some 1.4mil labourers in different fields, including 308,000 receptionists, guides and hotel servants.

 By 2010, the number of direct labourers in the tourism sector is estimated to reach 333,400, which means an 8.5% per annum growth rate, while the figures will be 503,200 and 10.2% for 2015. Professional labourers (receptionists, guides, chamber maids) will account for the biggest proportion of total labourers: 308,100 by 2010 and 467,000 by 2015.

 Representatives from big hotels, including Daewoo, Melia and Furama resort (Hotels in Vietnam), have all said that it is very difficult to recruit staff who have been methodically trained and can speak foreign languages fluently. Most of the students who graduate from domestic universities and colleges must follow short-term training courses before beginning their jobs.

 Jan Hilhorst, Business Development Director of Swiss – Belhotel International (SBI) in Vietnam, said that SBI would need some 4,000 staff members in the next two or three years to work at the group’s10 hotels and resorts, but it is facing big difficulties in finding labourers.

 Especially, Vietnam is seriously lacking tour guides who can speak French, Japanese and German. Only 5-12% of the total 5,000 licenced guides can speak these languages.

 Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director of the Organisation and Personnel Department under VNAT, stressed that it was necessary to train staff for the tourism sector based on actual demand.

 VNAT said that by 2015, Vietnam would have 10 more tourism training colleges, which will be located in important tourism areas, including the northwest, the north of the central region, Cuu Long River Delta, the central region and Central Highlands, and coastal areas of the south of the central region.

(Source: TBKTVN)