Da Nang’s tourism sector is estimated to need over 20,000 more employees by 2015.  Meanwhile, the annual number of graduates in tourism meets only one fifth of the total required.  This information was released at a recent seminar entitled “Human Resources in the Tourism Sector: the Current Situation and Solutions”, which was held by local Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Over recent years, the local tourism sector has encountered many difficulties due to a severe shortage of human resources and their inadequate qualifications.  Specifically, the city is witnessing harsh competition to attract human resources in the tourism sector, and there is inefficiency in several tourism development projects.  In addition, some local tourism businesses are shouldering the burden of increasing operational costs whilst their service quality is decreasing.  This has led to a significant drop in the number of domestic and foreign visitors to the city.

At the seminar, the participants stressed the need for local tourism businesses and training establishments to build closer links in order to offer many more short and medium-term training courses in tourism.  Special attention should be paid to calling for more international organisations to establish tourism training establishments in the city, as well as to offer support to local students so that they can access bank loans for funding their studies.

The municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman, Mr Phung Tan Viet, affirmed that although the city boasts a great tourism development potential, it has not yet attracted the large numbers of visitors expected.  He noted that the local tourism sector should find effective ways to further develop, as well as make every effort to develop the industry as a local spearhead economic sector in the near future.