HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT FOR TOURISM

Having properly qualified persons to work in all aspects of tourism is essential for successful tourism development. Even with the best of tourist facilities, qualified personnel are required to provide the quality level of services that tourists expect and are paying for. Local authorities should assess needs in their areas for the qualified personnel available when and where required as part of the tourism planning and development process. Developing the human resources for tourism requires a
systematic approach:
• Surveying and evaluating the present utilisation of personnel in tourism
and identifying any existing problems and needs, for example, upgrading
the skills of some personnel.
• Projecting the future personnel needed based on the number of personnel
required in each category and skill level of employment.
• Evaluating the total human resources that will be available in the future.
This involves examination of the number of persons in the area who will
be seeking employment in the future, and the educational qualifications of
these persons.
• Determining education and training needs of the personnel required and
formulating the education and training programmes needed to provide
the qualified personnel.

All types of tourism personnel must be considered in manpower development:
• Hotel and catering operations and management personnel including
front office and reception, housekeeping, food and beverage service,
food production (cookery) and maintenance.
• Tour and travel operations and management personnel including ticketing,
tour programming and tour guiding. Vehicle drivers will also be
needed.
• Government tourism management officials including planning and
development, marketing, application of industry standards, statistical
research, information services and other functions.
• Artisans, entertainers, sports directors and other specialist personnel.
Training is needed for basic skills, advanced skills, supervisory and management
levels in all categories. Also special tourism sensitivity training is
often required of customs and immigration officials, taxi drivers and retail
clerks.

Training approaches include organisation of short courses for existing
tourism personnel (these may be in-country or in other countries), regular
training programmes in hotel, catering and tourism training institutes or general
vocational institutes, university tourism programmes, study tours and
on-the-job attachments. Often, large international hotels will provide their
own in-house training but this will not be sufficient to provide all the training
needs in hotel and catering, especially for the smaller enterprises.

Commonly, a hotel, catering and tourism training institute will be established in the tourism area if there is sufficient local need. Such institutes require considerable
capital investment and technical resources to be developed properly,
and often need outside assistance for initial development and operation.
Also, an existing vocational school can develop a tourism department.
Determining training needs should always consider upgrading training of
existing personnel which is often required.

Each local area will need to assess its tourism education and training
needs and determine how to satisfy these. If there are suitable national or
regional training institutions, the local authorities may want to encourage
some local persons to attend these. If the local area is expected to develop
a substantial tourism sector, it may be justified to develop a local tourism
training institute or a tourism department in an existing vocational school or
polytechnic. The tourism office should co-ordinate closely with the private
sector tourism enterprises to develop the most suitable education and training
programme. The tourism office will also need to explore opportunities
for its own staff to receive the training they need in tourism management,
often through regional, national or international programmes. The World
Tourism Organization can assist the tourism office in identifying suitable
education and training institutions and programmes internationally, including
short-term programmes on tourism management.