Tourism employment: contingent work or professional career?

This article focuses on issues related to professionalisation of tourism industry in Denmark. Various suggestions have been made for improving quality of services, upgrading of competences and qualification of employees. The top priority of tourism industry is to expand and improve training of employees. One of the most enduring problems of human resources in tourist sector is the rapid turnover of staff. There are no training opportunities specifically for the tourist sector at university level in Denmark. In one of the studies conducted in Denmark it was observed that education is important in tourism as it is in other sectors of the economy. Cooks and waiters, who have the most well-established and recognized educational qualifications in tourism, also have significantly higher average incomes. Employment in the tourism industry is increasingly based on qualifications. Although starting from a very low level, more persons with a formal education are being employed in the sector. The lack of retention of professionals in tourism can be claimed to be a problem of definition of the sector as such. In terms of qualification and careers, tourism is becoming too narrow. Although staff with dedicated professional training can be retained in the tourist industry slightly longer than other groups of personnel, tenure is still very short and cannot be compared with professionals in other sectors.