More Workers Are Leaving Hotel Industry As Europe Is Dealing With Hotel Staffing Crisis
More specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused workers in the industry to rethink their career choices, and more of those even entirely leave the industry and opt for remote work, which experienced a boom in recent years, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
“It’s very difficult to find people to come back to the industry because it’s an industry where, in certain cases, there’s a reliance on migrant labour. We have Spanish people and Sicilian people in Malta because there’s more opportunity. They went home because of COVID, will they come back,” Simon Naudi, the CEO of Corinthia Hotels, a Maltese company, said for Euronews.
In addition, the situation is also challenging due to the fact that politics have impacted the workers’ desire to work in the hospitality industry, considering the travel restrictions, which, although the majority of those have dropped, some remain to this day and depending on the epidemiological situation, those can be reintroduced at any given time.
In other words, COVID-19 has changed how hospitality industry workers perceive their job, which, unlike others, cannot be done from home. Cooks, cleans, and receptionists all have to be in their workplace for this industry, which can be risky, especially during the pandemic.
Moreover, representatives from the industry are also frustrated with governments with their policies against immigration, as well as visa processing long times and complex procedures.
Such hassles are making it difficult for the hospitality industry to recover, although data from official bodies show that the travel rebound across the European countries is strong and constantly on the rise.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has previously revealed that about 1.2 million jobs in the tourism and travel sector have remained unfilled across the 27-nation-bloc, which can impact the sector’s recovery as it is marking the first positive signs after almost two years of no activity.
“In 2021, when governments began to ease travel restrictions, and travellers’ confidence improved, the sector’s direct contribution to the EU’s economy recovered by 30.4 per cent and recovered 571,000 jobs,” the statement issued by WTTC reads.
The WTTC analysis shows that the challenging labour shortage in the summer tourist season, as well as urging the authorities to take urgent action in this regard, have been listed as the main reasons for the situation of lack of workers in the industry.
