Human Resource Development (HRD)

in Emerging Tourism Destinations Tom Baum

Strathclyde Business School

University of Strathclyde

Glasgow

Our topic today - where I come from

• Over 30 years engagement in HRD/ HRM themes relating to the international tourism

sector - as practitioner/ research manager, researcher, teacher, examiner and

consultant

• Particularly interested in the social construction of work in the tourism, especially in a

comparative, international context - viewing tourism work in its social, economic,

political and cultural context

• Have had the opportunity to work professionally in this area in close to 50 countries -

including the opportunity to partner in research with colleagues across the globe

• Continue to be fascinated by new perspectives and contradictions in this field

• Today’s presentation is based on four recent consultancy projects with which I have

been involved (2012/2013), funded by ADB, AFD, EU and LuxDev

One or two quotes.......

•Yangon Hotel GM: “We are planning a 1,000 bedroom hotel on this site......”

•Me: “That is a big project - where will you recruit the staff”

•GM: “That is not a problem - we can sort that out closer to when we are ready to open.......”

•Me: Can you tell us something about the training needs of tourism staff

•Expatriate Owner of Phnom Penh Boutique Hotel: Look, all the visitors to this country are

happy with their experiences, therefore we do not need to train our staff, they are doing fine

•Cookery teacher, Pakse, Lao PDR: We use the charcoal fire because that is what we have at

home. We have the new equipment which the .. (donor agency).. gave to us but nobody showed us

how to use it

•Owner of private tourism training centre, Mandalay: The (Tourism) Masterplan says we need

over 180,000 new employees every year in Myanmar....... We train about 100 every year and all of

them get good jobs abroad

•

Today’s discussion

• Theoretical context

• Tourism and development - the workforce perspective

• Tourism in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam

• Workforce and HRD issues in tourism in these countries

• Lessons for stakeholders

• Conclusions

Some thoughts on theoretical context

• Multi-disciplinary focus, drawing on development studies, human

capital development, education, sustainable tourism and more

• Based on an integrationist approach to tourism development

which incorporates all facets in the planning process and

engages widely within an inclusive stakeholder framework

• Places the workforce and HRD for the tourism industry at the

centre of the tourism planning process - without human capacity

and involvement, investment in product, infrastructure and

marketing is futile

HRD - local or global?

• Conventional thinking in HRM/ HRD in tourism is lazily

universalist and places work squarely as “low skills”, located

within a weak labour market - eg. Shaw and Williams (1994),

Wood (1997), Westwood (2004) - a perspective applied by

development agencies worldwide in their interventions

• (Interestingly, also appears to influence the thinking of

international sporting bodies such as FIFA and IOC in

promulgating volunteer programmes in their Games)

• Challenged as predominantly ‘western centric’ by, among others,

Baum (1996) and Burns (1997) and is a view which has gained

traction since at a theoretical and applied level

• Counter, localist argument goes along the lines that tourism

work and the skills that it requires are context specific in

cultural, social, economic, development and organizational terms

Tourism and development - the workforce

perspective • Tourism seen as a ‘quick fix’ development sector with potential

for short-term economic impact - and other less positive as

well.....

• Tourism as a development ‘tool’ driven by a planning model (The

Masterplan) promulgated by ADB, UNWTO etc.

• Within these plans, the workforce and its skills needs

traditionally located as a ‘bastard child’, unloved, unwanted but a

necessary reality alongside more glamourous investments

(airports, destination branding, eco-trails, cultural asset

inventories) - the final chapter

• Things are shifting but there is still a strongly aspirational sense

to the HRD agendas that emanate from Masterplans with little

sense of how to execute HRD in a long-term and sustainable

manner

• The elusive search for financially sustainable HRD in tourism

Four countries in ASEAN........

Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Tourism at a

glance

CAMBODIA LAO PDR MYANMAR VIETNAM THAILAND

2012 INT. ARRIVALS (M) A

3.56 3.05 1.06 5.59 22.3

2011 RECEIPTS ($MILLION)

1,683 382 196 5,620 26,256

CHANGE IN INT ARRIVALS 11/12

+23.5% +12.0% +29.7% +10.0% +16.0%

SHARE OF GDP

18.3% 11.4% 5.6% 12.3% 13.8%

FORECAST % OF GDP IN 2020

15.3% 10.4% 6.1% 13.0% 17.7%

TOURISM EMPLOYMENT

302,578 51,754 37,992 819,345 2,976,934

WOMEN’S SHARE OF EMPLOYMENT

54% 50% N/A 70% 65%

Tourism in Cambodia

• ‘Honeypot’ destination - Siem Reap/ Angkor Wat

• Multi-party state with consitutional monarchy

• Emerged successfully from dark era

• Liberal economic policies encourage investment and growth

• Government play strong and active role in tourism development,

private sector voice is very weak

• High dependence on low value, backpacker markets - $7 a night

tourism

• Increasing importance of regional marekts (ASEAN, China)

Tourism HRD in Cambodia

• Low skills industry with few formally trained staff

• Poor quality service and products

• Lack of recognition of the value of skills and professionalism

• Limited investment in skills development of existing workforce

• Tourism growth means increasing demand for manpower and skills

• Very immature education and training system for tourism - no public TVET provision, limited university engagement, main players are NGOs

• Lack of skills development for tourism is a major handicap to the development of internationally competitive tourism in Cambodia

• NGO training aimed at extremely disadvantaged, ‘street kids’, focus is on social needs and not industry skills requirements - international charitable support

• Poor stakeholder engagement and co-ordination: lack of leadership in skills development from Government, private sector, industry associations

Tourism in Lao PDR

• ‘Honeypot’ - Luang Prebang

• One party state tentatively espousing market economics

• Major legacy issues - rural Lao and unexploded ordinance

• Strong government control over tourism planning and

development

• Emergence of minerals sector taking Goverment eye of tourism

ball

• High dependance for tourism growth on regional markets -

China, Thailand

Tourism HRD in Lao PDR

• “the critical shortage of the expertise required for development,

will pose one of the most serious constraints on economic

development in the Lao PDR and that strengthening human

resource capacity will represent one of the country’s major

challenges over the foreseeable future” (UN, 2006)

• TVET and university system of education and training functioning

poorly - disconnect from the industry with young teachers with no

industry exposure

• Declining enrolments in tourism TVET in spite of growing

employment opportunities

• Emerging commitment to training by private sector - “Passport to

Success” but dependence on external funding support?

• Poor capital investment by donor agencies in TVET training

alongside an absence of capacity development

Tourism in Myanmar

• ‘Honeypot’ - Bagan and its 4,000 pagodas

• Emergent multi-party system since dramatic changes in 2011

• Military retain strong control over central decision making

• Weak but growing market economy

• Foreigners welcome for the first time in 50+ years and very rapid

growth in numbers

• 70% of visitors are from China and Thailand, cross-border, local

tourism

• Very high pricing in place representing poor value

• “Low status” ministry………

Tourism HRD in Myanmar

• Major workforce growth and skills requirements predicted

• 60-70% of children are out of the school system within one year

of completing elementary school

• Virtually non-existent TVET and wider educational provision for

tourism

• Education and training fragmented accross 17 ministries but

major changes in train through comprehensive review of

educational system

• Limited private sector training, mainly for export

• Two new university programmes, pet project of the Minister for

Hotels and Tourism

• Major investments from multi-donors in the pipeline

Tourism in Vietnam

• Multiple attractions - geographically dispersed

• One party state espousing market economics

• Government-led development of tourism

• Most mature tourism destination of the four countries

• Mistrust of private sector - industry ‘associations’ are all headed up

by ex-public sector employees

• Weak voice of private sector

Tourism HRD in Vietnam

• Institutional framework in place for education and training for

tourism - ASEAN vocational standards, TVET colleges,

universities, private colleges

• Recipient of multiple iterations of donor agency support for

vocational standards, curricula, facilities (eg. Hue Hotel School),

institutional structures (VTCB)

• Failure of projects beyond donor lifecycle

• Marginal private sector engagement with HRD

• Public sector ‘rivalries’ between ministries

• Dated programmes which ignore emerging and high value

sectors

Lessons for Stakeholders (ADB)

• Recognise through policy, practice and resource allocations that

high quality tourism education and training are central to the

creation and sustainability of competitive tourism destinations

• Build tourism education and training on the basis of an engaged

and participative stakeholder model, involving multi-ministry

Government, industry associations, the private sector and

international donor agencies

• Recognise the limitations of existing public TVET systems and

their capacity and capability constraints in meeting the skills

needs of fast growing and diverse tourism sectors

• Ensure that capital investment in up-graded and new facilities

and equipment are accompanied by appropriate human resource

development in order to ensure their effective, long-term use

...................

• Implement and support a range of different organisational,

governance and resourcing models as reform templates for

tourism education and training within the broad scope of public

policy and legal frameworks for education

• In engaging with innovative governance and operational models

for tourism education and training, it is crucial that development

agencies providing support in this area, listen to, lead the debate

and engage closely with governments at the highest level in

order to ensure that the model adopted is compliant with national

laws and practice

• Ensure partnership engagement in all facets of tourism education

- policy, planning, resourcing, design and delivery - in order to

meet industry and societal needs

• Support innovative public-partnership models in order to

facilitate self-sustaining operations and development within

tourism education

Reflections

• Complex area, no ready answers

• Governments do not have the resources, capacity, capability or,

in some cases, the will to prioritise HRD for tourism - even if they

accept the case

• Fragile, imperfect build blocks for future growth of tourism

industry but these do exist and cannot be ignored

• Some evidence that without investment in skills (and enhanced

products and services that go with it), international visitors from

some markets will come but will they return?

• Some visitor markets are, perhaps, less sensitive to the

outcomes of poor/ non-existent skills than others?

• Compelling case for localism in approach

Thanks.........