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China urged to ease regulations for tourism industry workers
SHANGHAI – World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) president Jean-Claude Baumgarten has called on the Chinese Government to make a firm commitment to furthering employment opportunities in the tourism industry in China by exempting the industry from permanent residency requirements, so that people can be effectively mobilised and encouraged to stay in Travel & Tourism.
“This industry should be promoted to the younger generations as a highly regarded career opportunity and the English language should be made a requirement for all Travel & Tourism study programmes and newly hired employees,” Baumgarten said.
According to WTTC, China accounted for 72 million of the 231 million jobs created by Travel and Tourism in 2007
China is now the global leader in the creation of jobs followed respectively by India, the United States and Japan.
In 2007 China’s Travel & Tourism industry contributed 12.2 per
cent of GDP and the industry’s economic activity generated more than US$439 billion, positioning China’s Travel & Tourism economy as the fourth largest in the world, after the United States, Japan and Germany.
China’s Travel & Tourism is expected to grow at an annual rate of 9.6 per cent over the next decade, climbing to second position by 2017.
As a result of this positive growth, China faces increasing pressure on its human resources capacity.
WTTC said China’s greatest challenge will be to manage these projections.
In order to meet the industry’s future demands, China will need to recruit, train, retain and develop millions of people over the next 10 years.
Travel & Tourism leaders and human resources experts gathered in Shanghai this week to discuss the issue of China’s employment development and how to reach its full economic potential.
Baumgarten said, “China needs to focus its financial, human and intellectual resources on supporting, enabling, managing and directing its growth.”
Representing Beijing Tourism Group (BTG), Liu Yi, BTG vice president, said the Olympic Games would have a profound impact on the entire country, “but in the long term the Chinese government will need to control the calibre of people working in tourism in order to ensure quality service.”
Ian Jarrett
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