What are the three demands of tourism? - Lack of employees, Topuzi: State subsidy during the off-season
While the tourism sector is increasingly facing a labor shortage, and a good part of it is solving this through workers from the Philippines, serious measures are required from the government to ensure that this situation does not continue.
Among these measures is the subsidy of students pursuing hospitality-tourism majors and of employees, outside the season.
Zak Topuzi, Chairman of the Hotel and Tourism Association:
"We have recommended three main things. First, subsidizing vocational schools and universities. So that these students, at this moment that you are asking them, do not go to finish law school and come to work as waiters. But to finish tourism school and have the state pay their salary. For a family, the biggest thing is to have their education expenses removed. Second, subsidizing tourism workers. If you want quality, you cannot tell them to leave in October and come in May. And third, regulating the labor code, so that the contract has legal obligations."
According to Topuz, our country can easily apply the Greek or Italian tourism model, which has a minimal cost in relation to the impact this sector has on the economy.
"If you do a simple calculation, it takes 60 million euros a year to close this cycle. A complete analysis needs to be done, each tourist employs 7-8 employees, because when we say tourism, it is the entire chain and it is not just about what is served. We have done a study, UNDP together with our association and one of the questions was whether tourism needs foreign employees and only 5 percent agreed with foreign employees. Because being a seasonal industry, it cannot afford to pay a foreign employee for the whole year. Meanwhile, most of this business is family-run and cannot afford this cost."
In the first 4 months of the year alone, 2.4 million foreign citizens have entered Albania, signaling a good tourist season not only in the summer but also throughout the other months.
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