Hotels, accommodation facilities face staff shortage after pandemic

About 40-50% of workers at hotels and other accommodation establishments left their jobs in 2020-2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and have yet to return to work after the country reopened to international tourism in March, leading to labor shortages in the sector.

According to a report by the Vietnam Hotel Association released on Wednesday, the sector had about 400,000 workers in 2019. After nearly half the workforce left due to the pandemic, there is now only one staff member per room at five-star hotels on average.

The figures are lower at 0.8 for four-star hotels, 0.5 for three-star hotels, and 0.3 for one- and two-star hotels.

The report also showed that 30-40% of accommodation facilities have yet to reopen due to the low number of foreign visitors.

Vietnam welcomed 596,900 foreign tourists in November, adding to the total of 2.95 million in the first 11 months of this year. Though the January-November figures skyrocketed 21.1 times year-on-year, they were down 81.9% versus the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

2023-2025 will be the key recovery period for the tourism sector in the post-pandemic era, with a target of hosting 18 million foreign visitors and 90 million domestic guests in 2025, said Nguyen Anh Tuan, head of the ministry-run Institute for Tourism Development Research. This recovery could create three-four million jobs.

The average occupation rate in 2022 has been estimated at 35%, while average prices fell to only 30-40% of those in 2019, Tuan reported. Revenue from accommodation facilities in Vietnam reached VND425 trillion ($18.01 billion) in the first 10 months of this year, down 40% from the same period in 2019.

Vietnam currently has 38,000 accommodation facilities with 780,000 rooms, including 221 five-star hotels with 74,000 rooms, according to the Vietnam Hotel Association.