A seminar recently took place in Da Nang to discuss effective ways to develop more qualified tourism employees to meet the increasing demand from local accommodation establishments.

A bed-making competition at the event

Organised by the municipal Tourism Association, the event was attended by representatives from local hotels and other relevant agencies.

Da Nang Hotels' Association Chairman Luong Minh Sam remarked that, over recent years, the local tourism sector has recorded significant growth with a boom in the number of new hotels and resorts in the city. 

Mr Sam, however, pointed out that, “The city is facing a serious shortage of tourism employees.  Currently, the number of staff involved in this sector has yet to meet the sector’s requirements, especially for staff with professional and foreign language skills.  Some local hotels are lacking middle-level managers which is causing difficulties in ensuring their effective operation and promoting the quality of services to meet the international standards”.

The Deputy General Director of the city-based Fivigroup, Duong Thi Tho, remarked “Due to the serious lack of professional employees, many new hotels have to attract managers and other qualified employees from the existing 1 to 3-star hotels by offering more attractive salaries.  This results in an unstable tourism labour market as tourism employees jump from job to job over a short period of time.  In addition, tourism training programmes at local universities, junior colleges, and intermediate schools across the city have yet to meet the recruitment requirements of employers who then have to provide intensive training for their new recruits”.

To solve these problems, municipal Travel Association Chairman Huynh Tan Vinh said that local training institutes should cooperate with local hotels and tourism associations to better train their students and supply qualified human resources to meet the increasing recruitment requirements of local hotels.

The Director of the Ha Noi-based ATM training company, Mr Tran Xuan Moi, underlined the need for the city to identify standards for tourism training which meet the requirements of recruiters.  He remarked that local training centres should offer career orientations for their trainees to help them clearly understand their future careers.

Also at the event, some participants suggested that local tourism training courses should be taught both in Vietnamese and English.  In addition, longer internship programmes should be offered at local hotels for tourism students.

The Deputy Head of the municipal Tourism Department’s Accommodation Service Management Division, Ms Le Thi Ai Diep, said that 535 of the 575 local accommodation establishments are 1 to 3-star hotels, offering 65% of the total of rooms for visitors.

Ms Diep said that State management agencies are willing to send local students to hotels and resorts for internships in order to help them improve their professional skills.