Tourism

Sustainable solutions for tourism employment in the Caribbean are urgently needed

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Nearly half a million Caribbean tourism workers face the prospect of a decent work deficit in the form of job losses, reduced working hours, and loss of income, while worsening working conditions and the move to employment informal appears as a concrete possibility.

A new publication from the International Labor Organization (ILO) describes this significant and far-reaching reduction in the workforce of the Caribbean tourism industry due to COVID-19. It also warns that recovery from the adverse impact on jobs in the sector could be prolonged by a reversal of economic growth, and calls for a human-centered approach to resilient and sustainable solutions.

Entitled Tourism Sector in the English and Dutch-Speaking Caribbean: An Overview and the Impact of COVID-19 on Growth and Jobs, the report includes guidance and data from the ILO, as well as research conducted in the region to demonstrate the severity of the crisis. in the labor market of the sector.

On average, the tourism industry directly contributes up to around 33% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than 52% of export earnings. With approximately 30 million annual entries per year (most of which are cruise ship or U.S. passengers), the industry provides direct employment to 413,000 workers in the Caribbean.

This figure represents, on average, 18.1 percent of total employment. If indirect and induced employment is considered, those figures could rise to 43.1 percent.

“While data on the Caribbean workforce is not yet available to determine exactly how tourism workers have been affected by the crisis thus far, studies by regional organizations and preliminary national administrative data have nonetheless started to paint a picture of what is happening. ” explains Lars Johansen, Director (ai), ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean.

For example, small-sample surveys indicate that 71% of hotels had laid off staff in April 2020 to address the revenue shortfall caused by the crisis; about 66 percent had also reduced the work week or hours worked; and 53 percent had cut wages.

National-level data for Jamaica indicates that during the (relative) peak of the crisis, layoffs reached about 75 percent of the total tourism workforce and the remaining 25 percent worked just two to three days a week at a reduced rate of compensation. In Belize, 30 percent of all stimulus relief beneficiaries were from the tourism sector. These affected workers include tour guides, waiters, kitchen staff, guest / customer service personnel, cleaning and maintenance and upkeep.

Workers who are directly employed by companies that depend on cruise ship tourism are likely to be the most affected due to the delay in reopening that part of the sector.

Tourism is traditionally a labor-intensive industry with a higher than average multiplier effect on employment in other sectors (eg agriculture, food processing, construction, transportation, as reflected in indirect employment figures). The industry tends to benefit vulnerable categories of workers who are at a disadvantage in the labor market, such as youth, women and migrants, and more generally it is able to absorb workers with limited skill levels.

The rise in informal employment among workers in the tourism sector who have been affected by the crisis is also a cause for concern and may lead to exclusion from work-related social protection measures.