(AFP Photo)
By Rana Yehia
During four years of a tourist flow deficit, over 40% of direct tourism sector employees have left the field looking for other jobs. The latest numbers for 2014 recorded that employment in the tourism sector reached 3.5 million, where 1.8 million were in direct employment and 1.7 million were indirect employment.
However, Egypt is currently targeting an improvement in tourism employment training, to increase touristic flows.
Egypt spent about EGP 67m on training for tourism sector labour, but in the past four years, about 30%-40% have left the sector either to work in the same sector outside Egypt, or to work in different areas, Tourism Union member Adel Abdel Razek said.
Egypt is currently targeting the return of the sector’s labour by providing better employment offers and opportunities, knowing that Egypt is seeking the increase of tourism rates, Abdel Razek added.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Union launched last month a new training programme based on training inside hotels, to facilitate better opportunities for workers. The result of this programme will be evident in three months, Abdel Razek noted.
This programme targets the return of 15% of the former labour in one year and will continue working to realise further results by the year’s end, Abdel Razek said.
“The main problem now is that we can’t find young people wanting to work in the tourism sector, as it is currently considered a labour-repellent sector while many workers don’t trust that the sector will significantly recover soon,” said former head of the Chamber of Tourist Facilities, Wagdy Al-Kerdany.
“We are currently coordinating with the Ministry of Youth and the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration to provide 3,000 Egyptian workers returning from Libya and unsettled Arab countries to be rehabilitated and trained to work in the tourism sector,” Al-Kerdany noted.
