CTO’s Travel Conference Zeroes in on the Road Ahead

The tourism industry needs to focus on creating “quality jobs” rather than just quantity, delegates at a Caribbean Tourism Organization conference heard Wednesday.

Both Cayman Islands Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell and keynote speaker Claudia Coenjaerts of the International Labor Organization highlighted the need for the industry to meet its workers’ career aspirations rather than simply providing employment.

Amid advances in technology, Mr. Kirkconnell said people skills would become ever more vital. He said his government, through the UCCI hospitality school and through scholarship programs, was attempting to prepare Cayman’s young people to take good jobs in the industry.

She said technology was changing the type of work opportunities in the industry, with some careers, such as travel agents, becoming obsolete, while new opportunities for entrepreneurship were being created by the digital economy.

She said the new economy created problems for governments too, with many new types of employment falling outside the parameters of traditional labor legislation.

Citing statistics that show growing wealth inequality worldwide, she said a new “social contract” was needed where workers were able to have satisfying careers in the industry without fear of exploitation.

“We need to look and think about creating good-quality jobs, otherwise we will continue to only have workers who only go there as a first step into whatever is going to be their career,” she added.

Mr. Kirkconnell, who gave the opening address, said the Cayman Islands was focusing on developing its people to be front and center of the industry.

He said, “Tourism is a service industry and it needs people in order to function. Irrespective of how unique our tourism products might be, without a skilled and motivated workforce it is difficult to deliver [the] quality tourism experience that visitors expect.”

Source: Cayman Compass