Issues and Challenges in Acquiring Adequate Manpower in Tourism Sector U Ramesh1a,1b, Joseph Kurian2, Research Guide 1aResearch Scholar, NIMS University, Jaipur 1bAsociate Professor, College of Engineering, Munnar 2NIMS University Jaipur Online published on 8 June, 2012. Abstract Today, most of the countries promote tourism to earn foreign exchange, to encourage developmental activities, improve local economies and to generate employment. In India, the industry as well as Government stresses lot on tourism infrastructure but not much attention is focused on proper Human Resource Management. It is high time to realize that our country is aiming seven million foreign tourists to visit each year and is trying to build enough infrastructures to cater to the needs (Airports, Resorts, Highways, connectivity, etc) but is lagging in trained manpower to handle the same and to serve the tourists. It is mandatory that the industry requires trained manpower and the emphasis on HRD in Tourism need to be broad based at different levels in all diverse sectors of Tourism. The changing nature of Tourism and growing specializations demands much more than mere smiling faces and good communication of persons rendering services. It now demands a structured knowledge packed behavior and systematic approach too. There is also a strong need to train the existing employees in the Tourism field so that the quality of services rendered could be standardized. As per the WTO statistics, international tourism receipts totaled US $ 733 billion and Tourism represents around 35% of the world export of services. (WTO, Tourism Vision 2020) The International tourists arrival World wide is expected to be 1.6 billion by 2020. According to the study conducted by Tourism Ministry, Government of India, the supply for manpower in Tourism sector is not even 40% of the demand. This paper is the outcome of an effort initiated by the researchers to probe on to the present HRD scenario prevailing in the nation and hence an attempt is made to define the set of factors determining the tourism employment generation and to incorporate them into a model that is able to present their respective role and their inter relationships. Top Keywords Employment, Human Resource, Tourism. Top |