Tourism and hospitality industry training needs: the needs of developing nations - The case of the solomon islands

Abstract

The bulk of the tourism literature exploring tourism and hospitality employment and training has been based on Western models and case studies. Many Western assumptions concerning tourism and hospitality training needs may not be applicable to the developing world, and thus, there is a need for case studies exploring the training needs of developing tourism nations. This paper seeks to address this research gap by exploring the tourism and hospitality industry training needs of the Solomon Islands, a small South Pacific nation. Through collecting questionnaires and conducting a range of interviews with owners and managers of a diverse range of industry businesses, this paper identifies four key issues concerning tourism and hospitality industry training needs within the Solomon Islands. First, the manpower needs in the tourism and hospitality sector, second, the existing shortfalls in particular occupations, third, the need for trained manpower in number, quality and experience and fourth, the need for a training infrastructure, improvements and measures for skill improvements within the Solomon Islands’ tourism and hospitality industry. It is suggested that these are not unique to the Solomon Islands but are characteristics of many developing nations. Keywords: Solomon Islands, Pacific, tourism, training, employment, developing nations.

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