Hoteliers struggling to find workers amid labor shortage

Although tourism activity has rebounded with the COVID-19 pandemic-related troubles put behind, the industry is now facing another problem: Labor shortage.

Turkish hoteliers are trying to overcome this problem by hiring workers from other nations, such as Turkic countries and even from Indonesia, even though this costs them more.

Hoteliers say they apply to employment offices and municipalities' employment bureaus to find workers. Some say they even put job advertisements on the notice boards at offices of mukhtars (local heads) but all in vain.

An employee in the industry works 7.5 hours a day and six days a week.
Some 350,000 people work in Türkiye's hospitality sector, while more than 1.2 million people are employed in the tourism industry.

Companies need to increase their current employment by 25 to 30 percent to fill the void.

The labor shortage in the tourism industry is a growing problem globally, affecting not only Turkish hoteliers but also companies in many countries.

Orkun Petekçi, COO of Elite World Hotels, complained that it is now difficult to lure those workers who quit their jobs during the pandemic back to the industry.

"A housekeeper's salary is above the minimum wage. But still, we cannot find anyone to hire. We have no other option but to hire people from Turkic countries, Indonesia and other nations," he said.

Indonesians account for 10 percent of their total of 1,200 staff, Petekçi added.

The tourism industry very often experiences crises, as people working in the industry do not feel they have job security, fearing that they could lose their job in a crisis, said Petekçi explaining why there is a labor shortage in the sector.

It has become more difficult to find even...