CAROL Giuseppi, Tourism Accommodation Australia
Australia’s $40 billion tourism industry is a major contributor to the country’s future economic growth. Yet despite the positive outlook for the industry, the Australian Tourism Labour Force Report 2015-16 (Deloitte Touche) highlighted a need for 123,000 workers by 2020 to meet the rising demand.
The accommodation industry is an $8 billion sector, employing over 190,000 people. 34,702 rooms are currently under construction, approved for development or in advanced planning stages across Australia. Over one third of visitors coming to Australia travel to NSW with 57 hotels and over 10,000 rooms in the pipeline for the Sydney metropolitan region — all of which need staff.
The industry has an ongoing focus to attract staff across a range of disciplines including accommodation management; finance; sales, marketing and events; IT; engineering and maintenance; people and culture, and food and beverage to create world class hotels.
We need to convey that hospitality is not something you do in your gap year or until you decide on your career choice — this sector is the opportunity for secondary and tertiary students to commence an interesting career that has long term growth opportunities. This is supported by extensive training programs, internship programs and staff mentoring which help to progress young people along an exciting and evolving career path.
We now have multiple success stories of rising young stars within the industry which reinforce this message providing inspiration to our school leavers to consider a pathway into a career in hospitality either directly with hotels or through undertaking courses at university, TAFE or hotel schools.
Planning for the next Hotel Career Expo in 2020 has now begun. For more info see www.hotelcareerexpo.com.au.
