Tourism and Economic Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 113

it is frequently tourism's impact on employment in peripheral areas, thereby
counteracting rural-urban migration or a population shift towards more
developed regions, that is most emphasised. Tourism-developing regions pro-
vide jobs that prevent migration and make these regions more attractive to
young families. Thus, tourism employment issues in developed countries are
closely connected to regional development but are more often associated with
national economic growth and development in less developed countries.
Nevertheless, in some less developed countries, such as Mexico and Indonesia,
tourism has been promoted as a regional, as opposed to a national, employ-
ment generator.
Inevitably, tourism's impact on employment is widely criticised and it
has long been recognised that the promise of high quality, permanent jobs is
not realised in practice. Tourism industry employment has a negative image,
associated with the service sector in general and long and unsociable working
hours in tourism in particular. More specifically, criticism is frequently
directed at the part-time, seasonal and thus non-permanent nature of many
tourism jobs. Indeed, it is the nature of many tourism jobs to have these
characteristics. For example, in 2008 Greece reported that 41% of tourism-
related jobs were temporary, while in the same year only 11% of the coun-
try's total jobs were temporary (Demunter, 2008). In addition, the tourism
sector offers less stable permanent jobs than the rest of the labour market.
On average, EU employees stay with the same employer for 10 years.
However, in the hotel and restaurant sectors, the figure is only just over five
years (Demunter, 2008). Further, its negative image is also connected to the
fact that tourism often attracts individuals such as students or retired people
who might not be considered part of the working population. At the same
time, either the lack of local workers or the low wages, unsociable hours and
poor image of working in tourism may result in foreign workers being
employed, either officially or unofficially, in the sector, resulting in a variety
of social tensions. For example, 22.7% of tourism job places in Canada in
2010 were held by immigrants (Statistics Canada, 2011).
Finally, it is frequently claimed that, particularly in developing econo-
mies, the jobs created in tourism for local people are generally menial and at
a lower level. Canada reports that tourism wages per hour are lower than in
other sectors (Statistics Canada, 2011). Conversely, in many less developed
countries, such as Cuba, potential earnings in the tourism sector may actu-
ally be higher than in other professions (see also Cukier, 2002). It should be
noted, however, that especially in developing countries, the higher paid,
managerial positions are more often occupied by foreign nationals and, as
already observed, this importation of labour usually intensifies the leakages
that negatively influence economic development.
From the economic development perspective, there is consensus that
tourism creates employment that generally benefits the economy. However,
it may also be argued that, rather than creating new, extra jobs, tourism