/ Posted on 2 February, 2021 8:30
For an industry that often says its success depends on its people, losing good people to despair and other industries is worrying. On the bright side, this crisis could be a turning point for the travel, tourism and business events profession.
For as long as I have been covering travel, tourism and business events news – just 15 short years – laments of talent shortage have never ceased. There was always not enough folks who were both educated or experienced and passionate enough to outlast the pressures of long hours, frequent travels, and more attractive salaries offered by other industries.
The
ACI Report 2021, an annual salary and employment trends study, has painted a bleak picture of a travel and tourism industry afflicted with job losses and reduced employee confidence.
Drawing inputs from a sample of 829 travel, tourism, hospitality and lifestyle personnel from across Asia-Pacific and surrounding regions, the study identified 74 per cent of respondents whose jobs were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Twenty-four per cent were made redundant in 2020 while 50 per cent experienced salary cuts, with a majority 36 per cent taking a 25-50 per cent reduction and 28 per cent shouldering a steeper cut of 50 per cent or higher.
Among retrenched respondents, 83 per cent were employed in their organisation for under five years while the most vulnerable age group was 46-55 years old, with 53 per cent of respondents from this age bracket being affected.