Improve the quality of tourism human resources

Khanh Hoa tourism industry is aiming to become a leading destination in Southeast Asia. To improve the quality of tourism services, in addition to investing in upgrading infrastructure related to tourism activities, it is necessary to improve the quality of human resources. According to experts, to do this well, it is necessary to have a tourism human resource management strategy and strengthen cooperation in training tourism human resources.

Not meeting practical requirements

Khanh Hoa is one of the major tourist centers of Vietnam. Tourism activities in the province are very vibrant. Every year, in addition to domestic visitors, Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa also welcomes a large number of international visitors from Korea, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, etc. Tourism trends are constantly changing, Khanh Hoa tourism is constantly expanding the international tourist market, so human resources have not kept up with the development of local tourism. The most obvious is the shortage of tour guides who know Korean, Russian, etc. Ms. Nguyen Huong Thuy - Head of Administration - Human Resources Department of Anex Vietnam Trading and Tourism Company Limited said that the company is "looking for Russian tour guides" to prepare for welcoming Russian visitors back when charter flights from 11 cities in Russia resume. Similarly, with the expectation of welcoming more than 2.4 million Korean visitors in 2024, travel agencies and accommodation units in Khanh Hoa are always short of Korean-speaking staff. Many hotels and resorts have had to recruit workers from Korea to meet business needs.

Polish tourists to Khanh Hoa in early 2025.

At the working session with the Provincial People's Committee at the end of February 2025, Ms. Suramanathan - a senior expert of Gratiya Company (a consulting unit for the development of the Khanh Hoa tourism development strategy plan for the period 2025 - 2030, with a vision to 2045) assessed: One of the limitations of Agarwood tourism is the quality of human resources. According to Ms. Suramanathan, statistics on the province's human resources are outdated (only data up to 2019 is available); the survey showed that the province's tourism human resources are still limited: 92.3% of tourism human resources have foreign language proficiency that does not meet the requirements when recruited; 84.6% of tourism human resources need additional training; communication skills and sales and marketing skills are still weak. Having worked in Khanh Hoa tourism for many years, Mr. Pham Minh Nhut - Permanent Vice President of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa Tourism Association frankly assessed that compared to the previous period, Khanh Hoa tourism human resources have improved a lot. However, the quality of human resources has not kept up with the development of tourism in the province. The most obvious is the lack of highly qualified managers; tourism graduates lack soft skills and are weak in foreign languages.

Need for tourism human resource management strategy

According to the leader of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Khanh Hoa has the advantage of a system of universities and colleges that train in many professions related to activities and services in the tourism industry; every year, thousands of students and trainees graduate. However, the story of human resource training is not only limited to the scope of schools but also the responsibility of enterprises using labor, the spirit of self-study to improve the professional qualifications of workers. Enterprises must regularly train and update knowledge and skills during their professional activities. From a management perspective, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will continue to coordinate with relevant departments and sectors to inform about labor needs in the tourism industry, thereby orienting the training of tourism human resources to meet the needs of society; at the same time, the industry also regularly organizes training courses for tour guides, disseminates legal knowledge related to the tourism sector to workers, etc.

The Anam Cam Ranh Resort staff prepare an outdoor buffet party.

Mr. Vo Quang Hoang - Chairman of Khanh Hoa Hotel Association said that experience shows that tourism human resources trained by educational institutions are often weak in soft skills and foreign languages. To improve this, businesses need to cooperate and support schools in human resource training such as accepting interns; at the same time, businesses need to organize retraining and fostering to improve the quality of human resources; training to suit new customer markets... In recent times, tourist areas and hotels in the province have created conditions to accept students for internships; many students have been officially employed right after graduating from universities and colleges.

Khanh Hoa Tourism aims to develop sustainably, becoming a high-class destination in Southeast Asia; by 2030, it will welcome more than 21.1 million overnight visitors, including more than 10.5 million international visitors, with tourism revenue reaching VND 121,830 billion. To achieve these goals, in addition to improving the quality of infrastructure, the tourism industry must improve the quality of tourism human resources to improve the quality of products and services to bring satisfaction to tourists. Experts from Gratiya Company proposed that, in the immediate future, Khanh Hoa needs to improve foreign language skills for those working in the tourism industry and related services; foster and improve communication skills so that tourists can feel the friendliness of the people of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa. In the long term, Khanh Hoa needs to develop a tourism human resource management strategy, including forecasting tourism human resource needs, developing a training framework, training plans, and effective solutions to improve the quality of human resource training. “Khanh Hoa needs to organize a forum on tourism human resources to grasp the future human resource needs for practical training; in training, there needs to be a connection between training institutions and businesses, expanding opportunities for direct learning at the workplace, introducing internship programs and specialized tourism vocational training…”, Ms. Suramanathan expressed.

XUAN THANH

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/du-lich/202503/nang-cao-chat-luong-nhan-luc-du-lich-d3e520e/