Persistent doubts over rewards and reputation are causing Singapore millennials to shy away from a tourism career. Yixin Ng finds out what needs to be done
PATA Singapore Chapter chairman Soon-Hwa Wong (centre), Temasek Polytechnic (TP) School of Business’ director Daniel Yeow (second from right) and TTG Asia Media’s managing director Darren Ng (rightmost), with TP event helpers at Tourism Innovation Competition 2016
Exciting prospects await Singapore’s future tourism workforce, but more needs to be done to push past lingering misconceptions that are dulling the industry’s shine for millennials, leading industry stakeholders expressed.
“The tourism sector is competing for talents, in some ways unfairly, with other attractive industries such as banking,” Soon-Hwa Wong, chairman of PATA Singapore Chapter told TTG Asia, alluding to the longheld beliefs that customer-facing roles are the be-all and end-all of hospitality and tourism careers.
Young Singaporeans may also shy away from tourism pathways because of assumptions held by parents and peers that “low pay, long hours and limited prospects” typify tourism careers, Wong added.
Joan Henderson, associate professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School, also agreed that “salary considerations” have quelled interest.
Perhaps more striking is the low retention rate of hospitality professionals, with “large numbers” of students deciding to pursue other pathways after their tourism industry internships, according to a spokesperson from Temasek Polytechnic’s (TP) hospitality faculty.
In practice however, tourism holds coveted prospects, be it up the hotel rungs or in destination planning roles, assured Wong. The emergence of non-traditional business models in recent years has also emphatically broadened this scope.
“The industry now includes mobility players, tech platforms, analytics and big data systems. Even major tech players such as Google and Facebook now have tourism components,” he said. “Now is a good time to redefine the boundaries of travel and tourism careers.”
Change is already underway to assist young Singaporeans in discovering the multifaceted nature of tourism and how diverse skillsets are valued within the trade.
Earlier in June this year, the Tourism Innovation Competition (TIC) 2016 concluded after students took a week to develop ideas for the Singapore Zoological Gardens with the guidance of mentors from TP’s Hospitality and Tourism Management course.
Benjamin Cassim from the organising team at TP told TTG Asia: “We view the competition as a very relevant platform because it offers students the opportunity to learn, be exposed to and participate in tourism-building efforts in an enjoyable way.”
While lauding the TIC for generating awareness of the trade in young talents, Wong stressed that sustaining their interest is the larger challenge. One way to go about this, he suggested, is to highlight industry role models to raise the profile of the industry.
“Also, we could identify cross-sectoral ambassadors who would then talk up the industry – this is a role that associations (such as PATA and hotel associations) can fill.”
He added that invigorating industry news could be disseminated online to better engage a larger audience.
“Everyone loves feel-good news, which can lead them to think it’s an exciting and dynamic industry and not a tired one (as some might think),” Wong stated.
This article was first published in TTG Asia October 2016 issue. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
