The overriding issue facing inbound travel businesses is a shortage of staff leading to acute problems with supply, say industry leaders.
The heads of tour operators and destination management companies meeting at the UKinbound Convention in Aberdeen returned to the problem repeatedly in a round‑table debate on the challenges facing the sector.
One tour operator chief executive argued: “Demand is there but the supply isn’t. We have good-quality hotels operating four nights a week because they don’t have the staff. That has taken out a load of supply.
“The labour issues are not going to end anytime soon. We have this unique opportunity [to sell], but how can we get the product and deliver the experience? That is the biggest issue.
“I don’t know how we’re going to solve it. There are a lot of initiatives to try to get people back into the industry. But at the end of the day, there are more jobs than people.”
Reduced opening
A destination management head said: “We see hotels coming out of the supply chain, particularly those at a price point attractive for groups. At the top end, a lot of hotels are only operating on certain days of the week. One of my main hotels doesn’t do any service at all on a Monday.”
A second destination management chief said: “We have three hotels on our patch taken for government business. Two were key for groups because they have coach parking, so we’re seeing the wrong supply come out of the market. And while there are new hotels opening, a lot are budget brands which are no help to operators.
“Whereas pre-pandemic we had a clear picture of supply and demand, now we have eight to 10 hotels with question marks against when they’re going to open.”
Another operator argued: “Clients have been more understanding this year. Everyone accepted there were going to be teething problems after Covid. But we can’t have that again.”
Changing expectations
An excursion provider agreed, saying: “Customers increasingly expect a normal level of service, especially the family market. They expect to go to a visitor attraction and get maximum value, but they also expect to be able to cancel the day before. It’s tough to meet the expectations.”
However, the head of a recruitment agency warned: “We haven’t seen anything yet. So many people have been doing two, three people’s work this summer who aren’t prepared to do it anymore. We’re going to have walkouts. People are going to leave the industry.
“I speak to hotel managers working as chambermaids, and bar staff working in the kitchens, taking four days to come back to operators for a simple group request because they physically haven’t the time to open the booking system and they’ve had enough.”
Staff retention
She added: “Tour operating staff throughout the UK are coming to us saying, ‘We don’t want to do this job anymore. We’re tired, we’re fed up.’ They don’t want to stay in travel.
“I don’t know what the answer is, but staff retention is more important than bringing in new staff because every sector is going to lose staff in the next six months. There isn’t the money to raise salaries, and salaries would have to be lifted to such an extent that companies couldn’t afford it anyway. I wish I knew the answer.”
A supplier argued: “Staffing is absolutely the key issue. We see it across the travel sector. Everybody is under-resourced. None of us can fix it. There is a fundamental issue in the availability of staff in the UK and it’s going to take longer to sort out than the issues in the economy.”
‘Go elsewhere’
The head of a tour operator argued the only way to cope was “to reduce business”, saying: “Basically, we’re telling customers to go elsewhere in March, April, May and June next year. We’re saying ‘no’ to groups.”
However, a leading operator argued: “We’re not alone in this. Everybody has the same problems. It’s clearly a global issue. The danger is of getting too pessimistic. My attitude is ‘Give us the clients and I’ll give them a good time’. Far better that scenario we’re in than that we have a tour ready to go but don’t have clients.”
• The discussion was held under Chatham House rules, meaning remarks were unattributable.
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Travel firms struggle to retain ‘battle-weary’ staff [April 22]
Royal Caribbean chief warns staffing woes risk hitting sales [September 22]