Shortage of qualified staff thwarts Zanzibar's tourism industry: report

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago is currently facing a serious shortage of qualified workers, the situation that forces tour operators to hire foreigners, to do the hospitality jobs, according to a new report released Sunday.

The report, which was commissioned by Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (ZATI), cited lack of adequate numbers of skilled people as one of the serious challenges thwarting tourism development in the Indian Ocean Islands.

Financed by Tanzania's business, advocacy, and dialogue facility, BEST Dialogue, the report noted that to devise and develop a skilled workforce in Zanzibar, there is a need to define national skills development pathway.

In long run, the report suggested the need for skills development to be embedded in the education and training sector,.

It also called for the workplace skills training programme, more internships, apprenticeship training and calls for recognition of prior learned skills.

According to the report, over 60 percent of foreign workers in Zanzibar is in the tourism sector, largely due to insufficient supply of skills from the local labour market (in terms of quality and quantity) for the industry. This is an indication that there is a great need to develop a local workforce to be able to handle tourism business operations in the Isles.

"New skills are needed for Zanzibar to remain competitive and tackle the new tourist demands," said Seif Miskry, ZATI chairman.

He described tourism sector, as a labour intensive, employs a multiplicity of skills - accountants, hairdressers, tour guides and trackers and so on, thus it is one of the quickest ways to generate many jobs within a short period.

"This is why stakeholders in the public and private sector must come together and agree on the way forward in developing adequate and quality human resource for the tourism sector in Zanzibar," he noted.

ZATI commissioned "Skills Analysis for Zanzibar Tourism Industry" after noting most of the members of the association faced skills gaps, detrimental to their drive to grow the business.

"The hospitality industry has been experiencing a skills shortage... where it's hard to find and recruit quality employees with the right skill and can stay for the long term," said Miskry.

Zanzibar government and the private sector have been working together in a number of initiatives to make Zanzibar top destination of the Indian Ocean tourism, as outlined in the Zanzibar Tourism Development Policy.

According to Miskry, this can be realized and it will have a huge impact on the people and Zanzibar economy, thus it's only prudent to ensure the local youth are adequately skilled to take the industry to the next level.

"We believe that our tourist attractions are world-class but the economy is not fully benefiting from their potential because of some hurdles, which if addressed, will be a game changer," noted ZATI Chairman.

Miskry said it was paramount for Zanzibar to invest more in tourism education and training, while at the same time ensuring that public policies are made to stimulate travel and tourism job creation. To that effect, ZATI plans in the near future to hold a public private dialogue on seeking a lasting solution to the problem of lack of adequate skilled labour force for the industry.