A new training program has been launched designed specifically to help tourism businesses upskill when it comes to digital technologies, so they can be more competitive.
Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, contributing 10 per cent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product and accounting for 10 per cent of all jobs, according to the World Tourism Organisation.
Yet there is a tourism industry recruitment ‘crisis’ in Australia when it comes to finding suitably skilled staff that can cope with the increasingly digitalised world that tourism operators work in.
In Queensland alone, the World Tourism Forum estimates about 9,000 jobs will need to be filled by 2020.
Tourism Tribe, which is an online community of more than 1,600 and a leader in digital technology and coaching for the tourism industry, believes the industry is changing – not just in its digital operations but in meeting the demands of the increasingly digital savvy traveller.
Tourism Tribe’s CEO Liz Ward believes the old model of upskilling people for tourism is dead and a new model is required to grow a resilient tourism workforce.
“Tourism across the globe and also in Australia is growing but tourism operators need to grow too, which means upping their game when it comes to using and leveraging digital technologies, engaging a digitally trained workforce and, most of all, learning to cater to the new digital savvy traveller,” she said.
“We need to innovate, learn from other industries, take the best and give it a crack in tourism. In order to find the workforce of the future, we need an upskilling model that works with the digital generation’s lifestyle, needs and expectations. They move around, they are the social generation – driven to connect, contribute and create – and the training needs to reflect that.”
Tourism Tribe’s products allow tourism businesses to maximise the new digital infrastructure to access cloud-based solutions, which can improve and speed up business operations.
Their new product, launched in August, offers bite-sized monthly online training modules delivered by tourism experts, covering everything from crypto tourism to websites for the Chinese market.
“Upskilling the new tourism workforce to meet the demands of the new traveller requires a new, on demand, case-study-based model that doesn’t disrupt the operations of the time-challenged micro tourism business that makes up 90 per cent of the industry. Furthermore, training needs to be available to all operators, independently of their location.” added Ms Ward.
