Tourism as an Attractive Profession

Today more than ever, tourism represents a central factor in the economic wellbeing and prosperity of the project’s regions of focus, viz. the states of Tyrol, Salzburg, and Bavaria. Despite a generally positive development and a promising future for the industry, hoteliers and those running food service businesses are desperately looking for workers. This is because the image of tourism as an employer has suffered a significant downturn in recent years. Despite the arguments that should make tourism an attractive professional field, such as the pleasure of working with people, global job opportunities, and a crisis-proof job, there are also many reasons why tourism is not perceived as a good line of work. In other words, it is comparatively speaking a less attractive industry for employees than it could be. Employment in the hospitality and food service industry, in particular, is often characterized by irregular working hours including night and weekend work, as well as below-average wages. Additionally, the work itself often happens under considerable time pressure.

The goal of the project is to create a sustainable cross-border professional network of a wide variety of stakeholders. These stakeholders will gain access to an innovative platform for the professional development of their managers and employees through the use of state-of-the-art teaching and learning methods. In conjunction with this professional network, a wide variety of other approaches that could be used to increase the attractiveness of tourism as an employer will be explored and potentially integrated.

All measures have the dual aim of increasing the attractiveness of tourism as an employer and improving the image of the tourism industry. This should make local tourism businesses more attractive as employers and thus result in longer-term employment relationships. Project partners are the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg and the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol, as well as Chiemgau Tourismus e.V. and Standortagentur Tirol. In addition, numerous tourism associations and tourism schools will support the project as associated partners.