45% of regional tourism jobs affected in COVID’s highest peak – ILO

The International Labour Organisation has released new statistics, which show that about 45 per cent of jobs in the tourism sector had been lost during the worst wave of the pandemic in the Caribbean and Latin America.
This has signalled the need for policies in the recovery process to generate jobs and income among affected households.
According to a new regional technical note from the ILO, while the number of total employed persons contracted on average by 24.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, the loss of jobs in the hotel and restaurant sector in Latin America and the Caribbean totalled 44.7 per cent.
At the worst point of the crisis, about 45 per cent of jobs in the tourism sector had been lost. As such, the Organisation positioned on Wednesday that the need to design policies aimed at the recovery of tourism in Latin American and Caribbean countries will promote one of the most dynamic economic sectors essential for the generation of foreign exchange, income and jobs.
ILO Regional Director, Vinícius Pinheiro related, “The recovery of tourism depends directly on the advancement of vaccinations and the adoption of adequate safety and health measures at work. The reactivation of this sector may have an important multiplier effect on the economy and employment, which may be crucial to overcome the crisis generated by the pandemic.”
Titled “Towards a sustainable recovery of employment in the tourism sector in Latin America and the Caribbean”, the technical note is part of the labour overview series of the ILO Regional Office. It highlights that before the pandemic in 2019, the tourism economy, which includes both tourism and all the sectors that depend on it, accounted for 26 per cent of total gross domestic product (GDP) in the Caribbean and 10 per cent in Latin America.
It also says that the reduction in employment did not affect all workers in a homogeneous way: the loss was greater for women, young workers, migrant workers and for those who were in informal positions.
In 2019, women were overrepresented in the hotel and restaurant subsectors, with 58 per cent of employment, while in total occupations they accounted for 42.5 per cent. Another overrepresented group in the sector is young workers, up to 24 years of age, who make up 20.9 per cent of employment in the sector and 13.5 per cent of total employment.
Before the pandemic, informal jobs in tourism outweighed informality in all other areas of employment: 63.3 per cent of workers in hotels and restaurants in the region worked in informal conditions, while that percentage was 51.8 per cent of total employment.
The ILO analysis highlighted the need to design policies to promote a recovery with productive employment, the creation of decent work and sustainable companies in the tourism sector, especially to face challenges associated with the high presence of informality, underemployment and low income.
“Additionally, the sector’s support policies must have a focus on protecting the environment and maximising the benefits for the host communities and minimising the negative impacts that tourism activities may involve…And, given the significant presence of women in the sector, the legal frameworks for the development of the activity should have a gender perspective and include mechanisms for the prevention of discrimination and the promotion of gender equality,” it detailed.
Other recommendations called on the need for digitisation and expansion of capacities; productive transformation and creation of green jobs; and social dialogue and strengthening of coordination and voice of the tourism sector
This week, the recovery of the tourism sector will be the subject of analysis during a virtual tripartite meeting of representatives from Governments and employers’ organisations and workers’ organisations. The gathering will seek to exchange experiences and initiatives aimed at underpinning the recovery.
The ILO call raises the need to “facilitate a rapid recovery that boosts the sustainability of the travel and tourism sector, bearing in mind its labour-intensive nature and its key role in countries highly dependent on tourism, including small island developing states”. (G12)