The Vietnamese tourism industry is lacking able personnel even though the industry is growing and greeting more tourists each year.
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| Vietnam lacks human resources for tourism development |
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| Sustainable tourism development challenged by personnel shortage |
Recently, many examples of violation of the regulations covering tourism have been dealt with by the tourism industry itself. Several foreign firms who used unlicensed guides have been expelled from Vietnam.
However, the firms are forced to employ unlicensed guides because the Vietnamese tourism industry is lacking experienced guides.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vietnam has about 10,000 tourism firms which need nearly 40,000 employees each year. However, the number of graduates is only 15,000 a year, plus the firms have to re-train many graduates from colleges and universities before they can actually work.
Vu The Binh, president of Vietnam Tourism Association said, "We are in serious need of experienced guides, especially people who can speak Japanese or Russian. In some cases, people who have experience in the field cannot speak foreign languages, or vice-versa."
Many well-known firms suffer from a travel guide shortage during the holiday celebrations. They have to hire temporary employees and face potential problems i.e. that temporary workers might use the company's name for personal benefit and thereby sully the name of the company.
"Opportunities for graduates are high, yet, I know some firms can only find a few suitable employees." said the director of a tourism firm.
30-45% of tour guides and 70-85% of receptionists at restaurants and hotels do not meet the requirements for knowledge of foreign languages.
Head of another tourism company said they receive lots of applications for accountants, marketing people and executive positions though they're in dire need of room service personnel, kitchen workers and waiters. "Only a few people apply for those positions." he said.
Also, despite the high number of graduates, only a small number of Vietnamese employees are able to take on important roles at major hotels. The hotels prefer foreign managers because Vietnamese training courses and the quality of teachers are still considered weak. Training schools and tourism firms must find a way to work together to better deal with the situation.
Firms should be encouraged to establish their own training schools in order to meet the market demand.