Tourism HR Canada coordinates a wide range of activities to build a resilient, competitive, and inclusive workforce. We offer labour market intelligence, career awareness programming, training and certification, employment readiness programs, HR resources, and initiatives and events to connect students, educators, employees, employers, plus governments and industry associations, to ensure Canada has the people to rebuild and enhance our status as a world-leading tourism destination.
We’re celebrating 30 years of supporting our vibrant industry, and will be launching even more endeavours in the months ahead.
We have certainly seen improvement over last year, across every tourism industry group. Our most recent numbers (February) show an 8.1% year-over-year increase in the labour force across all tourism industries – including a remarkable 18.8% increase in travel services.
However, there is still a lot of fluctuation, and we have a way to go to reach our pre-pandemic high. We’re just shy of 125,000 fewer workers than February 2020, and as the peak tourism season for most of the country approaches, we expect to see this gap widen. We know labour was an issue even pre-COVID, and we’re working strategically with partners across the country to ensure we address labour and skills gaps and some of the systemic issues facing our sector.
There are many initiatives underway to promote employment in the industry and provide employers with practical tools and advice for recruitment and retention. We’re really excited to have just launched our Discover Tourism website and campaign, which features lots of inspiring video content, interactive quizzes, and career pathways, plus a whole series of checklists, videos – the Employer Compass series – and other HR resources for employers. Our aim is to dispel the perceptions around seasonal, temporary work, and show the true breadth of amazing, meaningful careers in tourism.
Absolutely. Destination Canada is now predicting that tourism will recover sooner than expected, and anticipate a growth of 35% over the next decade.
Travellers are making up for lost time and there is so much opportunity for new grads to be a part of this rebound, build on their skills and experience, and secure that dream job.
Propel offers domestic post-secondary students looking to complete work-integrated learning placements as part of their studies the chance to get paid experiences with tourism and travel employers.
It’s offered through the federally funded Student Work Placement Program, and is the only one specific to tourism, hospitality, and travel.
Students can be pursuing any field of study: there are roles for marketing, HR, finance, and more. They get hands-on experience in tourism, the chance to explore career pathways, network, and get that insider perspective on what options are out of these upon graduation.
And for employers, it offers generous wage subsidies for each student hired on a placement. Applications for summer are now open.
We have lots of information at PropelCareers.ca and we host webinars once a month – these feature a live Q&A, so they’re a great way to connect with the Propel team.
They really have a prime opportunity to explore positions across the tourism sector and across the country – employers in all regions are looking for new hires.
We offer a Tourism Employment Tracker that offers the latest employment and unemployment data in interactive charts – visitors can select a specific industry group or province.
We also routinely feature workforce analyses in our biweekly newsletter, Tourism HR Insider. And the new Discover Tourism site connects job seekers with job boards offered by various industry partners, so they can dive right in and find that perfect role.
It looks bright.
Tourism is so broad that people can make their own career pathways, building skills and making connections as they go.
It’s a fun industry, it’s rebounding quickly, and you get the chance to truly impact people’s lives by offering transformational experiences as they travel, learn, and discover all that Canada has to offer.
