'The tourism industry is facing much stronger challenges than most other industries in in finding employees and in recruiting employees'
Business will be good for employers in the tourism industry this year, according to one expert.
“We're expecting it to remain high, especially after COVID. You know, we did see a lot more occupancy. There's high demand for it,” says Mike Jacobs, CEO of The New Business, in talking with Human Resources Canada.
However, “the tourism industry is facing much stronger challenges than most other industries in in finding employees and in recruiting employees,” he says.
Canadian companies are entering 2025 with a positive hiring outlook, according to a recent report. Overall, 71% of employers are entering the year with a positive feeling about their hiring outlook, reported Express Employment Professionals.
Employment in accommodations and food services dropped to 63% in January 2021, compared to declines to 89% from 96% in other sectors during the same period, he says, citing data from Ontario Tourism Education Corporation (OTEC).
And these numbers are “still indicative of where we are,” Jacobs says.
By 2035, the tourism sector would need 2.3 million just to meet the demand. For this year, Ontario alone would have 723,000 job openings in the tourism sector, he says.
“Filling that gap with the current state of affairs is just going to be a major challenge.
“Anecdotally, what we're hearing is some operators are just not able to operate. They're not able to offer their full suite of services and accommodations. Some places are just basically not able to operate their business at all, and some have to reduce the scale of the business that they're operating.”
Currently, Canada is looking at a potential shortfall by 2035 of $10 billion of potential revenue if the industry could continue to grow, he says.
“The biggest challenge here is the missed opportunity. This is an industry that could be a leading industry – for Canada – across the entire world. But if the business owners don’t have either the incentive or the opportunity to grow and innovate, just because of the cost of doing business and the challenges they face here at home, it really just can't grow.”
Employment in Canada increased by 91,000 (+0.4%) in December 2024, according to Statistics Canada (StatCan).
One way that employers in the tourism sector can fill job openings is simply by offering “more competitive compensation and benefits,” says Jacobs.
However, “with the cost of business increasing across the board, not just related to staffing, that is a very challenging situation to address,” he says.
He adds that employers should invest more in training and development for workers.
He also encourages those who may be interested to come and work in the sector to do so, and for those already in to stay.
“Tourism is an amazing job. Fundamentally, you're doing something that is about taking care of people. They come to visit you, wherever you are… You're about making them have the best time of their lives.
“In many areas… this means that you are outdoors, you're enjoying nature, and you're providing an experience. And it's really different from what's happening online. So it offers a really fulfilling career path in that regard.”
Jacobs also notes that there are many different roles in the tourism sector, such as a travel influencer.
“There's lots of people that are working at a tourism business. They also need support with marketing, which is largely done on social media these days. If you're more interested in working directly with people, there's a way to do that, seeing hundreds of people a day, in some cases, and working with the public and making sure that they have a great time.
“And finally, if you're more of an academic or you're working in business planning, there's a huge need for that: for strategy, for business planning, succession planning and all manner of administrative office type work in the industry as well.”
The percentage of hospitality and tourism employees who said they wanted to leave the sector saw a major drop in 2024, according to a previous report.
