Foreign visitors in Hoi An City in the Central Province of Quang Nam. Central Vietnam region’s travel and tourism sector has suffering major staff shortage
For instance, Lotus Hotel in the Central City of Da Nang’s Son Tra District was seriously affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. The hotel owner tried to hold up until the beginning of 2021 but finally resorted to laying off all employees. Hoang Thi Le Dieu, a receptionist of the hotel applied for a job as a restaurant waitress to make ends meet, while some colleagues switched to business or found other stable jobs.
Elsewhere in Hue City in the Central Province of Thua Thien- Hue, Nguyen Thi Hoa has now switched to selling agricultural products online and intends not to return to work as a tour guide because visitors came to Vietnam not as many as before.
The pandemic has pushed over 50 percent of hospitality workers out the door. Hotels and restaurants in Thua - Thien Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An have shown significant shortages of experienced reception, room staff, and maintenance from the beginning of 2022 until now.
Ms. Chau Thi Hoang Mai, Managing Director of Alba Hotel in Thua Thien - Hue Province said that recruits without skills are difficult to meet the job requirements. The hotel had no choice but to hire new staff because it is facing a serious lack of employees.
Mr. Luong Nguyen Minh Triet, Permanent Deputy Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee, Chairman of the Da Nang City People's Council, also said that recruiting workers for the tourism industry is a difficult problem, many businesses at the job market are still looking for employees.
According to statistics of the Da Nang Department of Tourism, from the end of April 2021 up to now, in Da Nang, about 80 percent of tourism workers including about 42,000 direct workers in the tourism industry have been unemployed and switched to work in different jobs. Many of them won't return to the tourism industry.
Before the Lunar New Year 2022 up to now, the tourism industry has gradually improved and remained quite stable. Ms. Nguyen Hoang Thuy Vy, CEO of Muong Thanh Hue Hotel, Vice President of Tourism Association of Thua Thien - Hue Province, said that from the Tet holidays ( the Lunar New Year), hotels in the province have high occupancy rates and a high number of guests. The sudden increase was beyond the forecast, so there was a shortage of staff and facilities.
Worse, some hotels have seen a shortage of up to 50 percent of employees because they have previously laid off many employees or employees decided to quit their jobs over wages and benefits.
As the hospitality sector grapples with a widespread labor shortage, hoteliers are turning to more creative, as well as aggressive, efforts to secure talent. Many hotels and resorts have high remuneration policies, creating great competition in attracting labor in the coming time.
However, small hotels with moderate remuneration will find it difficult to attract workers.
Mr. Tran Huu Thuy Giang, Director of the Department of Tourism of Thua Thien - Hue province, said that the lack of labor could lead to poor quality service in the coming time. This will hurt the recovery of the tourism industry.
Accordingly, the Thua Thien - Hue tourism industry will support enterprises to quickly train new staff to temporarily supplement the shortage of laborers as well as encourage enterprises to improve the working condition to create a friendly working environment and good regimes to attract workers.
Similarly, Mr. Cao Tri Dung, Chairman of Da Nang Tourism Association, said that the locality has been organizing scores of training courses for laborers in the industry.
