THE pandemic’s impact on the health of travel and tourism jobs is taking its toll. ACI HR Solutions’ latest Salary and Employment Trends report show that more than 70% indicated some level of disruption to salaries and employment, and yet an even more worrying sign – the number of people who are considering leaving travel for other industries is increasing.
“The effects of this will surely be felt by employers as the industry starts the recovery process,” said the report.
The pandemic’s impact on the travel industry has been dramatic – after a year of closed borders, international tourism is now at levels registered 30 years ago. Based on current trends, UNWTO expects international arrivals to decline by 70% to 75% for the whole of 2020.
The estimated decline in internationals tourism in 2020 is equivalent to a loss of about 1 billion arrivals and US$1.1 trillion in international tourism receipts. This plunge in international tourism could result in an estimated economic loss of over US$2 trillion in global GDP, more than 2% of the world’s GDP in 2019.
UNWTO’s extended scenarios for 2021 to 2024 point to a rebound in international tourism by the second half of 2021. Nonetheless, a return to 2019 levels in terms of international arrivals could take 2.5 to four years.
ACI’s just released annual report used salaries and employment data to illustrate the impact of Covid-19 on the health of the industry. Through interviews with almost 1,000 tourism personnel across Asia, ACI’s report found the Covid-19 pandemic impacted 74% of respondents in the industry across the region, with 24% indicating they were made redundant in 2020; a further 50% experienced salary cuts, and 36% saw their salary reduced by 25% to 50%. A further 28% experienced a steeper cut of 50% or higher.
Some 83% who had experienced retrenchment, were employed with their organisation for less than five years, and the most vulnerable age group appears to be 46 to 55, with 53% of those retrenched belonging to this age bracket.
On the question of salary progression, only 28% of respondents indicated they had received some form of a salary increment in 2020, representing a large drop when compared to the previous year where 65% of respondents indicated a bump in their pay.
But 39% of respondents did receive a bonus in 2020 (compared to 60% the previous year), the majority 40% of those receiving 1-2 months’ bonus, with a further 32% receiving less than one months’ bonus.
At this time of upheaval, many seem to be reflecting on career progression, and some are considering a move out of the industry.
About 74% indicated that career progression was either ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’ to them, compared to 70% in the previous survey. However, only 32% of those surveyed said they believed their current employer offered ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ opportunities for career progression, down from 2020’s 40%, with a further 34% even indicating that career prospects with their present employer were ‘poor’ or ‘zero’; up from 30%.
When asked about plans to change employers and/or industry over the next 12 months, 68% indicated to the positive, with 27% of those open to exploring opportunities outside the industry compared to just 15% the previous year.
Training and development were a key focus during 2020 with 35% of respondents taking up either short courses and/or higher education, with Digital Marketing & e-Commerce related programs being the most popular choice, followed by an MBA.
Salaries fluctuated across the different countries surveyed. During pre-Covid times, Japan/Korea recorded the highest average salaries ($114,319), while China ($110,356), UAE ($109,273) and Hong Kong ($101,498) were not far behind from the survey. Indonesia ($48,490) and Malaysia ($53,545) posted the survey’s lowest average salary.
For the full report, click here.
Featured image credit: Getty Images
