Tourism: Skilled people leave the flagship
WHERE have the national skilled people of the tourism industry gone, particularly those who used to work in hotels and restaurants? In Marrakech, as in the rest of the country, there is a lack of manpower among many tourism players. In hotels and restaurants, the situation is even more critical. Landlords are under pressure in the face of summer holidays, the autumn/winter season, the most important tourist period, which is approaching and during which demand will further increase the tension.
After two years of crisis and closure of some hotels and restaurants, the skilled people who are in demand have turned to other services (in particular banks, insurance companies, etc.) and have made a successful retraining. “Nonetheless, the pandemic has only accentuated the recruitment problems that the sector was encountering. If, in the past, finding the ideal candidate was not an easy task, today it is even more complicated ”, says Imane Rmili, president of the association of restaurant owners of Marrakech. The same applies to hoteliers. “During the past two years, our sector lacked visibility, the recovery was slow, and companies were not recruiting. The result is that the staff lost confidence in our sector and looked elsewhere. As far as employers are concerned, they have lost 30 years of skills development ”, notes a local hotelier. The reasons behind these desertions are known: lack of training, motivation, and career plan. “Overall, the tourism professions have neglected the promotion of careers and young people have ended up taking them as a makeshift solution”, regrets Imane Rmili, who also is the president of the National Federation of Tourist Restaurants. “We have to revalue the profession, promote it so that young people get a taste for it. At the same time, it will be necessary to raise awareness among operators to put in place recruitment strategies and career plans”, insists Rmili. The sector also suffers because of the abuses committed by some people who prefer to resort to temporary contracts, to pay badly, and to ‘‘exploit’’ their staff. This has also been proven in time of crisis management and payment of compensation to employees. The Ministry of Tourism has noted a large discrepancy between the announced figures and the actual declared workforce figures. Accustomed to employing an unskilled workforce, hotels and restaurants must change their way of thinking if they want to keep pace with the growth of tourism. These two professions are faced with new customer requirements. On the market, skilled people are hard to find or are attracted to Europe which also has a staff shortage, or willing to go to the Middle East which needs manpower, in particular Qatar.
Badra BERRISSOULE
