Tourism is said to be the world's largest employer, with 2 million people working Britain's travel and tourism industry, making it one of the most prominent industries within the UK, in addition the industry operates with a significant amount of temporary agency workers, normally equating to 9% of their workforce.
Tourism is a fast-growing industry, but with the credit crunch in 2008, figures have dropped as people have less money to spend and companies are unable to expand as rapidly. There are a number of issues that tourism businesses need to over come.
Fluctuating oil prices result in the airline industry imposing further fuel surcharges to cover higher costs, which have to be met by the consumer through increased air ticket prices. This will put the consumer off travelling during the expensive periods.
The decrease in the strength of the pound against the euro means for UK tourists the notion of going for a cheap holiday in Europe is disappearing. People are also becoming more aware of their carbon footprint and may want to decrease this by taking fewer flights.
In 2008, official figures from the UK Tourism Survey revealed huge increases in the number of UK holidays, 7.1 million Britons having holidayed in the UK in May 2009 compared with just 6 million the year before. Likewise, for the first five months of 2009, the figures showed how 20.5 million Britons went on holiday somewhere in the UK, up 16% compared with the same period in 2008.
In a bid to reduce costs and improve efficiencies the industry is turning to vendor neutral service providers such as de Poel to utilise the benefits of a flexible workforce.
Further challenges presented themselves as to cope with the recession, many agencies began upping their margins, cutting corners on worker-checks and manipulating pay to candidates, leaving travel, tourism and hotel companies open to further high costings and legal exposure, and workers vulnerable to underpayment.
The use of temporary agency workers will continue to play a pivotal role within the travel, tourism and hotel sectors but with tight employment legislation and pressures to contribute to the environment, the need to improve control of their temporary workforce will increase during 2010.
Travel, tourism and hotel companies must improve their control and indeed cost of the temporary workforce, which is often fragmented if they are to be successful during 2010.
Demographic shifts, changing lifestyles and advances in technology are not the only factors to have affected the travel and tourism industry in recent years. The recession has also had a massive impact on the sector, altering the nature of tourism and travel behaviour, in turn reducing overall profits for industry leaders.
In 2009, official figures from the UK Tourism Survey revealed huge increases in the number of UK holidays, 7.1 million Britons having holidayed in the UK in May 2009 compared with just 6 million the year before. Likewise, for the first five months of 2009, the figures showed how 20.5 million Britons went on holiday somewhere in the UK, up 16% compared with the same period in 2008. There was also a growth in camping and caravan breaks. The change, otherwise reported as an increase in "staycations", was put down to people trying to save money during the economic downturn.
In line with these findings, the ITB World Travel Trends Report also showed how the number of Europeans taking trips overseas fell by 7% in 2009 and holiday spending decreased by 15%. Similarly, long-haul travel dropped by 12% and short-haul journeys fell by 6%. Last minute holiday bookings hit record highs during the year as consumers became more and more insecure.
For tour operators, hoteliers, airlines and rail companies, the recession therefore had a huge impact on business, reducing profits all round throughout 2009. Other than job slashing and pay cuts, which proved extremely inconvenient for many travel companies, market leaders focused on cutting operational costs such as those related to recruitment and accounting. Companies working with de Poel are able to reduce their spend on temporary agency recruitment - a popular practice in the travel and tourism sector following a high number of job losses.
There are approximately 10,000 agencies operating in the UK, with no recruitment agency owning more than 4% of market share. As well as being fragmented, the recruitment industry is largely unregulated, which means many of the 10,000 recruitment agencies in the UK do not comply with legislation, leaving their retail clients legally exposed.
Travel, tourism and hotel companies use multiple agencies across all projects for their temporary agency workers, with numerous recruitment agencies on board, travel, tourism and hotel companies are often unaware of the wide range of pay rates, fees and terms and conditions, making it an expensive and often challenging area of the business to manage and administer.
Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of using temporary agency workers is its flexibility and responsiveness. Workers can be provided by agencies quickly, as and when they are required. This is particularly useful for the tourism industries in accommodating for seasonal and economic trends. Industries will emerge from the recession at different times and varying paces but all will face increasing pressures to accurately project costs, including resource. The use of a temporary workforce will cushion any risk by deferring such commitment until future uncertainties are resolved and confidence is strengthened. It is therefore not surprising that a temporary agency workforce is emerging as a strategy that can play a critical role during the economic recovery with the tourism industry.
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