Experts see 20,000 jobs in country's tourism sector in 5 years

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Kamrun Nahar
Hospitality and tourism experts are expecting an employment opportunity for about 20,000 skilled persons in the sector within the next four to five years, as new star hotels and service providers are expanding their business to Bangladesh.
They also foresee the number of star hotels to be doubled by 2020 and 40,000 job opportunities to be created in the hospitality and tourism sector by 2050.
The figures were disclosed by the experts while addressing a workshop jointly organised by Industry Skills Council (ISC)-Tourism and Hospitality Sector, European Union (EU) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) on 'Leadership and Management Competencies for Tourism and Hospitality Executives' in the city recently.
The workshop was facilitated by John Roberts, tourism and hospitality expert of the UK who came to Bangladesh as part of his Asia visit. The Westin Dhaka, Royal Park Hotel and Apollo Hospital supported the workshop.
A total of 60 representatives from hotels, travel agencies, tour operators and government agencies and academicians took part in the workshop.
The latest research carried out by World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) on Bangladesh showed that the country's travel and tourism sector generated more than 1.32 million jobs directly in 2011 (1.9 per cent of the total employment) and is forecast to grow by 3.6 per cent in 2012 to 1.37 million (1.9 per cent of the total employment).
This includes employment by hotels, travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services (excluding commuter services). It also includes, for example, the activities of the restaurant and leisure industries directly supported by tourists, the report added.
The report further added travel and tourism sector will account for 1.84 million jobs directly, an increase of 2.9 per cent over the next ten years.
Francis De Silva, expert, TVET Reform Project, Component 4, Workplace Learning and Productivity, who moderated the session, said direct employment for hotels will be generated for cooks, chefs, waiters, receptionists and housekeeping staffs.
For travel side there will be a demand for the travel agents, computerised reservation operators, tour operators and tourist guides while for the airlines the demand will be created for crews, ground handling officers and crew trainers, said Francis.
There will also be more retail shop operators for tourism products, suppliers of food equipments, taxi drivers, tourist coach drivers and operators, he continued.
Regarding the capacity of the country in developing the size of skilled manpower, Francis said ILO Bangladesh has been working for the last four years to develop capacity of the National Hotel and Tourism Training Institute (NHTTI) and private training providers to deliver quality, competency-based training under Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB) certification.
Francis said ILO will undertake strategic planning exercise (in the tourism and hospitality sector) to determine the skills need to identify immediate, short-term and long-term skill shortages and skills gap.
Tourism and hospitality expert John Roberts said as a developing economy Bangladesh needs to invest more in skills development for delivering skilled manpower in hospitality and tourism sector to maintain international standard in the services.
Worldwide hospitality and tourism sector have been affected both by internal and external factors like globalisation, economic and political condition, rise in the customers expectations, increased competition, government support, labour availability, environment issues, customs, added value, quality system, management skills and employees' training, added John.