EVEN the local travel and tourism industry is being hit by the migration of Filipino workers, and the schools are not providing it the right talent to fill the resulting vacancies.

This, Amadeus Philippines general manager Albert Villadolid said, is now threatening the operational viability of local travel agencies.

“Our current estimate is that 12 percent of those who leave to work abroad are in the tourism industry.  With this scenario, travel agencies are now challenged to fill their vacancies with qualified personnel with the same skills,” Villadolid said in a statement.

According to government data, more than 760,000 Filipinos opted to work abroad during the first seven months of the year, representing a 26-percent increase from the same period last year.  Currently, there are more than 8 million Filipinos working abroad.

Villadolid said more than 3,000 travel agencies in the country usually lose their employees to companies in the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

Currently, Villadolid said most newly hired personnel of travel agencies only stay in their companies for six months to gain experience and make themselves marketable internationally.

After this, they will seek employment abroad to get better salaries than the entry-level compensation they are getting from the local firms.

Amadeus, which provides solutions to more than 2,000 travel agencies across the country, said if this is not remedied, there will be a scaling down of operations in the travel and tourism industry.

One solution they are looking at, Villadolid said, is to partner with schools so they can adjust their curriculum according to the needs of the industry.

Currently, the human resource and tourism graduates of universities are not getting the specific talent that are required by the industry, including the simple skills of handling bookings. “The schools are teaching students mainly functional and management topics when, in fact, they need specific content skills in order to be hired,” Villadolid said.

Amadeus has already partnered with the Cebu State College and Technology, College of the Holy Spirit, College of St. Benilde, Columban College, Indiana Aerospace University, Intercontinental Training and Review Center, La Concordia College, Philippine Women’s University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Royal Christian PAL Learning Center, Southville International School and College, University of Caloocan, University of the Philippines and University of San Carlos-Recoletos. 

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