Nghe An tourism human resources are lacking and weak.

Developing community tourism in Con Cuong. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Still lacking and weak

According to the Department of Tourism, in the period 2013-2018, the number of direct and indirect workers in the industry increased by an average of 7-8% per year. The number of young workers trained and fostered in professional skills is increasing and accounts for a large proportion (nearly 50%). Of which, tourist accommodation establishments account for 65%, restaurants 30%, the rest are travel agencies, transportation, tourist attractions, tourism training establishments, and administrative units.

Up to now, the number of people working in the tourism industry in Nghe An is about 15,000. There are currently 7 tourism training establishments in the province, including 3 universities, 3 colleges and 1 secondary school. Every year, hundreds of students are provided to tourism businesses.

In 2019, Cua Lo strives to welcome and serve 3.15 million tourists. Photo courtesy

There is a lack of staff to manage and operate small and medium hotels, travel agencies, professional tour guides and interpreters, and workers who are good at foreign languages, have good skills and expertise in hotel and restaurant business, and tourism area and destination business. The number of trained and certified staff is still limited, mainly in 3-4 star hotels.

Community tourism sites have been prepared for the tourist season and will be ideal destinations for visitors to experience. Photo: Ba Hau

About to open the beach tourism season, along with promoting, urban beautification, attracting investment and environmental sanitation, enhancing food safety and hygiene, Cua Lo town is also urgently preparing human resources.

Thanh Chuong tea island attracts local and foreign tourists, as well as international tourists. Photo: document

According to Mr. Vo Van Tho - Head of the Town Culture Department, Cua Lo said: Currently, most of the accommodation and service businesses are recruiting staff, and the tourism training schools in the area cannot meet the demand in terms of quantity. Therefore, we have often had to recruit untrained people. We are planning to train this staff to improve service efficiency.

The most difficult thing now is the problem of human resources serving in hotels and restaurants, from management positions, reception to food preparation. This is due to many reasons, the most basic of which is that Cua Lo tourism is still "seasonal", the peak season is only 4 months/year, the remaining months are quite quiet, leading to unstable demand for human resources.

Mr. Vo Van Tho - Head of the Town Culture Department, Cua Lo

On normal days, that number of people can meet the needs of tourists, but on holidays and weekends when the number of visitors increases suddenly, it is very difficult. Quote

Mr. Nguyen Thien Dung - Head of Culture Department of Nam Dan district

In Western Nghe An, Con Cuong is one of the localities that is assessed to have made progress in tourism development, especially eco-tourism and community tourism.

Currently, there is no specialized department in charge of tourism. Reception and guidance of guests are still done by staff and rangers.

Mr. Tran Xuan Cuong - Director of Pu Mat National Park

Mr. Tran Xuan Cuong - Director of Pu Mat National Park said: The number of foreign tourists is increasing day by day, while the staff and people at community tourism sites are very few who know foreign languages, so it is inevitable that there will be problems.

Expanding scale, improving training quality

Emperor Quang Trung Temple (Vinh City, Nghe An) is an attractive spiritual and cultural tourist destination for domestic and foreign tourists, especially at the beginning of the New Year. Photo courtesy

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong - Director of the Department of Tourism said that to overcome the shortage and weakness of human resources, the immediate task is to invest funds in training to improve the skills and qualifications of human resources.

Specifically, promote the work of fostering and improving professional capacity for the team of state management officials on tourism; hotel, restaurant and travel agency managers. Provide training to improve qualifications, professional skills, foreign languages ​​for tour guides, interpreters, food processing techniques... to meet national tourism vocational skills standards and international practices. Regularly organize professional competitions and skilled worker competitions to honor individuals with professional qualifications and good skills.

In the long term, it is necessary to diversify training and development forms to suit the needs of tourism human resources development of the province, link vocational training facilities with businesses, encourage training according to addresses and orders. Strive to have the rate of trained and professionally developed workers reach 65-70% by 2020.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong - Director of Department of Tourism

In addition, training institutions are paying more attention to innovating training programs towards regional and global approaches. Combining theoretical training with practical skills as well as practical experience and professional work handling skills.

Strengthening international cooperation and linkages in tourism human resource training and development, inviting experienced experts working in tourism businesses to teach some content to help students grasp practical knowledge...

Recently, at a working session with the Department of Tourism, when discussing solutions to overcome difficulties in human resources, gradually turning tourism into a spearhead economic sector, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy gave instructions: "The Department of Tourism needs to research, advise and propose to the Provincial People's Committee to direct vocational schools in the area to open more training codes on Tourism (from intermediate level and above), ensuring professionalism and meeting practical requirements".