With many young people going abroad, Croatian tourism is facing shortage of seasonal workers.
Croatian hotels will need more than 15,000 new seasonal workers next year, and it is going to be difficult to find them due to the deficit of potential staff and an increase in emigration from Slavonia, the region from which many people used to find employment as seasonal workers in tourism. The sector, which already this year struggled to find workers, is deeply concerned, and therefore the issue of personnel will be the main topic of the upcoming conference of hoteliers, as well as one of the topics at the annual event Days of Croatian Tourism, reports Poslovni.hr on October 14, 2016.
The Association of Employers in Hotel Industry and the Croatian Employment Service say that the problem is being solved. They have joined forces and have been actively working on finding and educating employees, which might not completely solve the problem for 2017, but they say that this is a good start and that this year’s drama should not be repeated.
In late June, Croatian Employment Service and the Croatian Chamber of Crafts signed a cooperation agreement on training of workers for catering professions. Education programmes emphasize practical skills and basic knowledge, and it is planned they will include a total of 1,100 unemployed persons.
The programme has been completed by the first group of 65 candidates from Zagreb, Dugo Selo, and Ivanić Grad. According to data, 19 of them have already found a job. Association of Employers in Hotel Industry is charged with collecting data on hoteliers’ needs. Although some seasonal workers return to same jobs from season to season, since there are new investment in tourism facilities the needs for seasonal employees will be even greater than this year.
According to director of the Association Iva Bahunek, they have so far collected data on the needs of about fifty percent of their members, which have so far expressed the need to recruit around 7,500 seasonal workers. “Based on the survey, we estimate that next year hotels will need more than 15,000 workers. We are pleased that we have achieved a very good cooperation with our partners, which is a good start to solve the problems faced by many tourist countries”, said Bahunek. The goal is to educate people through proven programmes, in all parts of Croatia, in order to have qualified people for Croatian hotels by the next spring.
