FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

AEC could mean more foreigners taking hospitality jobs

AEC could mean more foreigners taking hospitality jobs

The Thai hospitality industry is bracing itself for more foreigners pouring into the Kingdom to taking away jobs from locals, even though the authorities claim this will be offset by an increase in tourists spending their money here.

“The beginning of the Asean Economic Community might not bring many advantages to the Thai tourism sector as many locals may lose their jobs to foreigners because of their poor language skills,” said Ittirit Kinglake, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand. Some Thais are also likely to dislike working in the same office as foreigners and may leave their jobs.
The TCT says many foreigners have already moved in to work in marketing and sales at hotels, shops, restaurants and other service businesses. “I am confident that a lot more labourers will come and steal jobs from Thai people,” Ittirit said.
According to the AEC’s Mutual Recognition Agreement for Tourism Professionals (MRA-TP), 32 job titles related to tourism such as hotel housekeeping, front-office work, travel agencies, entertainers, and providers of food and beverages will be able to work in any country in the region if they hold MRA-TP certifications. A study by the Thailand Development Research Institute found that Thailand had a serious shortage of skilled labour. Malaysia needs to import some workers while other countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam have surplus labour. The TDRI urged the authorities to work with educational institutes and the Ministry of Labour to enhance Thais’ competencies in order to prevent them losing their jobs to foreigners.
The research found that 25 million people work in the tourism and travel industry in Asean’s 10 member states. In Thailand, about 4.8 million people work in tourism and related businesses. However, a lot of Thais are poorer in foreign-language skills, especially English, than their counterparts in Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam.
To deal with such weaknesses, the TCT is cooperating with vocational colleges nationwide, offering intensive training for 32 job titles in tourism and related businesses.
The country is now lacking personnel in at least four job areas, mostly in the hotel sector: Housekeeping, front office, multi-language officer, and food and beverage staff. The hotel sector alone needs about 100,000 more workers per year as more hotels and resorts open. The industry so far has had no problem with a management shortage, but more professional tour guides are also needed. Despite these difficulties, tourism authorities have planned a series of marketing and promotions to lure intra-regional tourists.
Jamnong Junnapiya, Tourism Authority of Thailand executive director for Asean, South Asia and the South Pacific, said Thailand’s key rivals had already developed new attractions and increased their marketing efforts to draw tourists. “Seven TAT offices in the region have been given a mission to work with travel operators and form alliances to increase visitors from their territories,” Jamnong said.
During the first nine months of 2014, Thailand received 4.7 million visitors from Southeast Asia, down by 11.3 per cent from the same period in 2013. However, the TAT hopes to get the number of Southeast Asian visitors back up to 8 million in 2015.

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