Who Wants to Work in Tourism? – Addressing the shortage of qualified tourism sector workforce

Before the corona pandemic, the global tourism industry was not only one of the biggest economic sectors worldwide, but it has also provided job opportunities, especially for people in developing countries who struggled to find work in other sectors.

International travel has been at a complete standstill for almost 2 years, which has severely affected the tourism sector at large and has resulted in the need for literally millions to find other occupations of work. While there have been concerns about the tourism sector’s recovery post-COVID-19, it seems that, currently, in many destinations, the tourism and travel behaviour has been quickly recovering at high rates. However, at the same time, there appears to be a dramatic shortage of qualified tourism workforce in basically every destination in the world.

Here in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian areas, it’s no different. Across the tourism value chain, business owners are already feeling the dramatic lack of a qualified workforce.

This edition of the Jerusalem Tourism Talks addresses the lack of workforce from different angles and perspectives. It’s an open discussion where we would like to hear voices from the different sectors and strategically think about ways to reduce the shortage and find creative solutions to not only attract people back to work in the tourism sector but also create interest and incentive for newcomers to join the tourism workforce.

As with all tourism talk sessions, this episode is open to all tourism practitioners from the public and private sides as well as anyone with an interest in Palestinian tourism.

We especially invite representatives of commissioning parties (locally and internationally), tourism consultants, and researchers to join the discussion.

EJTDP’s Tourism Talks are hybrid events:

• Join us in person at the EJTDP’s Tourism Development Hub (Al-Yacoubi Street #6, Jerusalem) (Refreshments will be provided).
• Or join us online, a unique link to join virtually will be provided after registration.

Please note that you must register in order to attend the event.