A waiter uses white gloves to keep from staining clean glasses at a hotel facility in Makati, the country's major business district.  Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN news file

MANILA - An industry group said the hospitality and tourism sector is facing challenges in retaining employees as many seek better-paying jobs abroad. 

An official of the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association (HSMA) said the Philippine hotel industry still needs a lot of workers amid the growth in tourism. 

During a press conference for the upcoming 2nd HSMA Sales & Marketing Summit, HSMA President Loleth So said it is still very challenging to hire new workers and more importantly to urge them to stay. 

“How to retain them. It’s the retention program of the hotels. How do you keep the employees in hotels happy and not only happy, but content enough to stay where they are and continue to work with the hotel,” said So who is also the Group Commercial Director of Megaworld Hotels & Resorts.

The group said it is developing a program to entice workers to enter the hospitality sector and, hopefully, not resign soon.

So said many prefer to go abroad because of higher pay. HSMA also noticed that many are enticed by cruise ships abroad, and some countries not usually getting Filipino hotel workers are now doing so, adding more competition for Filipino hotels.

“The deficit is coming from a lot of our colleagues going abroad. [The] Middle East has been getting a lot from us, even Japan, surprisingly, despite the language barrier,” added HSMA Director Jenny Gabon-Santillan, who is also the Sales & Marketing Director of City of Dreams Manila.

Other tourism workers meanwhile have also been transferring to other industries because of the work-from-home setup, which many hotels can’t offer.

The group said it will discuss these issues at their upcoming summit in June which will be attended by around 300 hotel officials and representatives. 

AI in tourism?

Aside from the issue of human resources, new trends in the industry will also be discussed.

“AI [artificial intelligence] is currently helping the industry digitize itself in a lot ways like chatbots, robots that serve, but it will never ever replace marketing people,” said HSMA Director Agnes Pacis, who is also the Vice President for Commercial of the SM Hotels and Conventions Corp.

Despite the workforce challenges, the group said it remains optimistic about the growth of the hotel sector despite inflation, and other economic headwinds. After the ‘revenge travel’ trend last year, the group sees travel demand normalizing this year. So said they look forward to a more dynamic 2025.