Research / Publications > Productivity and Tourism
Productivity and Tourism
Productivity rates can be impacted by many factors: new technology, training, sufficient availability of labour, and efficient work practices. Productivity is also a key factor in a sector’s competiveness. Tourism faces productivity challenges because much of the work is labour intensive and the gap between labour supply and demand is forecast to worsen. Furthermore, in the case of a sector such as tourism, the definition of productivity is complicated, and any measurement must be multi-faceted.
In 2008, the Council discussed these challenges with representatives from various academic disciplines at the University of Guelph and, as a first step, commissioned an analysis of productivity trends in tourism using existing measurements and theories, as well as previously conducted research on labour market trends in tourism and other sectors.
This phase of the work resulted in confirmation that tourism sector productivity overall cannot be measured using traditional means, though these measurements do work for some individual tourism industries. Following consultations with tourism and productivity experts, two papers were developed that, based on the fields of Human Resource Management and Economics, summarize the current situation as it relates to productivity measurement and offer recommendations to further this research priority.
