WACHEMO UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND HERITAGE MANAGEMENT

TOURISM EMPLOYMENT AND IT'S CHALLNGES IN SOME SELECTED

HOTELS, IN CASE Of YIRGALEM TOWN

By: ASHAGRE AREGA

Advisor: Mr. TESFAYE TADESE(MA)

MAY, 2021
HOSANA, ETHIOPIA

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 Table of contents

Contents page

Acknowledgme ..............................................................................................................4

Acronyms.............................................................................................................................................
........

Abstract................................................................................................................................................
........

CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………………………………...9
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………9

1.1 Background of the study...........................................................................................9

1.2. Statements of Problem..........................................................................................10

1.3. Objective of the study...................................................................................................................11

1.3.1 General objective............................................................................................................................11
1.3.2 Specific Objectives.........................................................................................................................11

1.4 Research questions.........................................................................................................................11

1.5 Significance of the Study...............................................................................................................11

1.6. Scope of the study.........................................................................................................................12

1.7. Limitation of the study.................................................................................................................12

1.8 Organization of the research..........................................................................................................13

CHAPTER TOW...............................................................................................................................13
2. REVIEW RELATED LITRATURE............................................................................................13

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2.1 The concept of tourism employment.............................................................................................13

2.2 Challenge of tourism employment................................................................................................14

2.2.1. Human resource development challenges in the tourism and hospitality Industry
.............................................................................................................................................................16

2.3 The quality of tourism employment..............................................................................................17

2.4 The nature of tourism employment...............................................................................................18

CHAPTER THREE...........................................................................................................................20
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES.............................................................................................20

3.1. Description of the area..................................................................................................................20

3.1.1 Location..........................................................................................................................................20
3.1.2 Demography....................................................................................................................................21

3.2 Research approach and design.......................................................................................................21

3.3 Target population of the study.......................................................................................................22

3.4 Sampling technique and sample size.............................................................................................22

3.5 Source of data................................................................................................................................23

3.6 Data collection instruments...........................................................................................................23

3.7 Method of data analysis and interpretation....................................................................................23

CHAPTER FOUR.............................................................................................................................23
TIME SCHEDULE AND BUDGET BREAKDOWN………………………………………………

TIME SCHEDULE…………………………………………………………………………………..
BUDGET BREAK DOWN…………………………………………………………………………..

Reference......................................................................................................................42

CHAPTER ONE
1 INTRODUCTION

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1.1 Background of the study
The concept of tourism employment refers to employment strictly related to the good
and service acquired by visitors and produced by either tourism industries or other
industries. Hence, tourism employment is a measure of the number of jobs directly a
tribute to tourism demand in tourism and non tourism industries, held by employees,
self employed and contributing family workers (IRTS, 2008).
Employment in tourism sector consists of different occupations in several diverse
subdivisions such as travel agencies, tour operator’s transportation, accommodation,
food and beverage, and attractions to name a few. Furthermore, the industry is
considered to be labor intensive in a way that the personal service attribute of the
delivery of service is so important and irreplaceable(Salihkusuvan,2003).
Wood (2003), literate that there are certain gaps in research about employment within
the tourism sector. who claims that more research exist about hospitality, hotels, gusts
houses and other accommodations as well as restaurants than other tourism
employment within the sector.
A good set of employees could therefore make or break the complete visitor’s expirer
nice. Baum (2006) makes appoint that in service sector like tourism, the level of
human involvement in particularly high when delivering the service or the experience.
Einarsadottr and Stefansodottir (2009) express the same thought when stating that the
human resources are every company's greatest asset, especially, within service
business like tourism. It is therefore puzzle why research of the sector is still
relatively scarce but as pointed out by ladkin (2011), there is a certain lack of reliable
employment data as the sector is hard to define and all empirical research is quite
expensive.
Furthermore, Employee retention is also a critical component of challenges dealt with
by tourism companies where the economic sector, especially of smaller populations,
can't offer continues employment opportunities on a yearly basis (Baum, 2012).

Tourism has a variety of economic impacts, tourist contribute to sales, profits, gobs,
tax revenues, and income in an area. The most direct effect occurs with the primary

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tourism sector, lodging, restaurant, transportation, amusement, and retail trade.
Through the second effects, tourism affects most sectors of the economy. An
economic impact analysis of tourism activities (stynes, 1997).

1.2. Statements of Problem

As the tourism and hospitality industry continues to grow there is evidence that
organization are increasingly competing through the development of human resource
talents. However, the low prestige and status of tourism and hospitality jobs
(Kusluvan, 2010) continue to be challenges for tourism employment when trying to
attract and retain qualified staff. This challenge has compelled management of
organizations to recognize the importance of employment in tourism industry. It is
believed that the key factor for improving both competitiveness and employment
opportunities is to upgrade the human resource of the tourism industry (Freeman,
2012), it is important to note that without an improvement in human resource practice
difficult in attracting employees.
Different researches conducted a study in relation to thesis revealed that there are a
certain gap's in research about employment within the tourism sector (Wood,2003), no
study is found which examined employment challenges in Yirgalem town. Therefore,
the researcher is filling the gap and identifies the challenges of tourism employment.

1.3. Objective of the study

1.3.1 General objective

The General Objective of this Study will be to Identify Tourism Employment and It's
Challenges in Some Selected Hotels, in Case of YirgalemTown.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

1. To assess the nature of employment in tourism sector.
2. To identify the quality of employment in tourism sector in Hossana town.
3. To identify the challenges of tourism employment in hosanna town.

1.4 Research questions

1. What are the natures of employment in tourism sector in Yirgalem town?
2. What is the quality of employment in tourism sector in Yirgalem town?

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3. What are the challenges of tourism employment in Yirgalem town?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study will be conducted importantly to identify the challenges of tourism
employment Yirgalem town. This important to:
 The government's -the government may use this study as a reference to
identify the challenges and use the suggesting solution and recommendation
of the challenges.
 The employer -the employer will know the working conditions and
requirements of the job and that the employee will know the details such as
pay and hours.
 The employee -to increase the working interest and get working skill.
 The employment -this are able to do their tasks without difficulty and
mistake.
 Tourism students -to serve as a guide line study and use to reference among
students.
 The researcher -can also develop good experience from the study to involve
on further research.
Generally, this study important to the tourism employment productivity will be
increased if and only if the challenges are minimize and if possible to radically
illuminate. If this is so employment will do any of their tasks confidently.

1.6. Scope of the study

This study will focus on identify the challenges of tourism employment in Sidama
region, particularly Yirgalem in town.
Geographically is Yirgalem city found in Sidama Region, Ethiopia. It is located 6.03
latitude and 37.55 longitudes and it is situated at elevation 1269 meters above sea
level.

1.7. Limitation of the study

During the study period researcher may face certain limitations. Some of the problems
are shortage of budget and time; lack of comprehensive bodies of literature to refer

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and guide the research work as well as unwillingness of employees to fill the
questionnaire. Therefore, these problems may affect the work of the researcher and
become reason for poor and weak finding that contribute little to solve practical
problems.

1.8 Organization of the research

The research paper will be organized in to five chapters. The first chapter will content
about background of the study, statement of problem, objective of the study, scope of
the study, and limitation of the study. The second chapter will be deals with about
organize in to presentation of review of relate literature and methodologies are
describe in the third chapter. Data presentation and analysis of the finding are deal in
chapter four and followed by summery, conclusion and recommendation in fifth
chapter.

CHAPTER TOW

2. REVIEW RELATED LITRATURE

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 2.1 The concept of tourism employment
Tourism employment more and more people in the less developed countries.
However, they are mostly employed at the lower performance level, in order to keep
the salaries low. The managerial staff is on the other hand brought with multinational
corporations. Thus, the income from tourism is not sufficiently let to grow in the
destinations (Hemmi, 1999) However, it is generally agreed that tourism does create
employment and that this is a beneficial impact.

There are three different types of employment offered by tourism. Direct employment
at tourism facilities resulting from tourist consumption, indirect employment is also a
result of employment in the tourism supply sector. However, not directly resulting
from tourist expenditure, induced employment occurs as additional employment
resulting from tourism multiplier effects to a certain extent (Mathieson, 1992).
The impact of employment and income are related as direct, indirect and induced
effects can be distinguished in both cases. There is also a connection between
increased income and increase employment. Although the pace of growth is not
necessarily of equal standard. The types of tourist activity influence, the effect on
employment, as different types of tourism are labor-intensive at different level', for
example the accommodation facilities employ a large number of labor force at
destinations and thus often require greater amount of capital as well (Mathieson and
Wall,1992).

2.2 Challenge of tourism employment

Low gob satisfaction has been recurring construct in the literature that investigation
employee motivation over that the past several decades (kusluvan, 2000) study's that
hospitality and tourism employees most likely to leave the industry because of low
gob satisfaction.
Job satisfaction in the industry is thought to be influenced by a number of factor
including long hours, night and weekend schedules, stress, demanding super visitors
and duties. Lack of personal time and quality of life, routine, and little opportunity for

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advancement and growth (Pavesic and Brymer, 1990).among these, wage have been
viewed as an important determinant factor for employee job satisfaction and been
shown to influence an employee’s decision to leave the organization (Kaline and
Hairy, 2007).
Krakover (1999) describes tourism industry as an unattractive employer. Seasonal
pattern makes it unstable employment. Therefore, there is a need for human resource
managers to find, result, train and retain the talented workers. For instance, Tsvetan
Rancher, president of the Bulgarian chamber of tourism states a 15 percent drop in
seasonal tourism employment, yet "the sector actually strives to employ skilled staff,
particularly trained and qualified service personnel"(Sofia Echo, 2010).
Business response to seasonality might vary according to the nature of seasonality in
the destination, business specification, general strategies of the firm, and other
internal and external factors. Jolliffe and Fansworth (2003) discuss tow possible
strategies used by business exposed to seasonal pattern of tourism. "Embracing and
challenging"
Embracing seasonality means that company accepts seasonal character of the business
and designs its actions accordingly.
Tour operators which are affected by seasonality in the destination of operation. They
challenge seasonality by extending the reason by lowering the rates on off - season
times or designing off - seasonal packages; also, local premises can challenge the
seasonality by lowering the rates. Offering additional service and activities, as well as
subsidizing the employees (Jolliffe and Famsworth, 2003).

2.2.1. Human resource development challenges in the tourism and

hospitality Industry
As to the tourism and hospitality industries continue to grow there is evidence that
organization are increasingly competing through the development of human resource
The low status of or low skill levels among the employees of the tourism industry, is
becoming a concern international labor mobility (Berger and Brownies, 2009). The
tourism and hospitality industries employ many of the unskilled and low skilled

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workers that migrate to developed countries from LDC. Managers are now challenged
to manage employees from different cultural background clearly (Baum et al, 2007).
Culturally background clearly influences the attitudes and behaviors of workers in the
tourism and hospitality industries (Baum et al, 2007).

2.3 The quality of tourism employment

The concept of job quality in the social science dates back to the eighteen and
nineteen century, and several well known and leading theories have been preoccupied
with quality of work. According to Marx (1967), employer’s ownership and control of
the means of production implied that almost all jobs were bad. He argued that in
modern industrial production under capitalist conditions the workers become
alienated because they lose control over the nature of the work tasks, and over the
products of their labors (Giddens, 1997).
Green (2006) examines the following aspects of job quality skills, work effort,
personal discretion over tasks works and participation in work place decisions, pay,
workers' risks and job insecurity, and job satisfaction and affective will-being at work.
Measure of job insecurity include separation rates (the rates at which employees leave
jobs), redundancy rates at which employees are forced to leave their job), job tenure
(time spent in one job), duration of unemployment and impact of job loss on future
pay (Green, 2003). Other measure are perceived job insecurity (fear of involuntary job
loss, whether existing wages will be maintained). Access to training, promotion
opportunities and employment of workers labor, Green also include the risk of work
place accidents and diseases in his study of job insecurity.

2.4 The nature of tourism employment

Improving competitiveness should be reflected in improved education levels, and a
better security of contract for those employed in the sector. The requires place to
promote accessible education and training routes (including open and distance
learning, encourage investment and development of sector specific specialists,
segmented tailored course for new entrants and those purchasing continues
professional development. This will improve prospects for all ages of employees in

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the industry which often faces challenges in attracting and developing talent to
improve competitiveness, (OECD, 2001).
Linking policy interventions and demonstrating contribution to competitiveness from
initiatives to improve education level in the sector remains a constant challenges,
measure number of jobs in tourism industries defined by age (youth 15-24): prime age
(24-54), old workers (55-64), by education level (low skilled, medium skilled, and
high skilled), and by types of contract (permanent workers, temporary workers),
(OECD, 2001).

This indicators measure the level of education, age and contract tenure of those
employed in tourism, hotels, restaurants and catering employ large number of people,
often on a casual basis and comprising a sizable proportion of young females and
individuals with lower education level compared to the averages for an economy.
Country regions with high tourist activity tend to have lower unemployment rates but
less job stability and high seasonality (OECD, 2001

2.5 Conceptual framework

In below conceptual framework there are different variables which directly and
indirectly affect the tourism employment in such like the dependant variable are poor
working condition, low job satisfaction, low skill workers and seasonality are
dependent variable. And tourism employment is the independent variable which
change due to this independent variable because the employment challenge rely on

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these variable. There is link between the tourism employment and challenges in the
below chart. Poor working
condition

Tourism Low job

Seasonality Employment satisfactio
challenges n

Low skill worker

(Sources: own complain, 2017)

Fig 2.1.Conceptual framework

CHAPTER THREE
3. Research Methodologies

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 3.1 Research approach and design
The study will be used mixed research approach and Descriptive research design will
be used employee as it helps to explain and describe the study in detail. According to
Aggarwal (2008), descriptive research is devoted to the gathering of information
about prevailing conditions or situations for the purpose of description interpretation.
This design to describe what the challenges and impacts about Yamare hotel and
Aregash loge with regarding about employes challenge to those hotels in the study
area, Yirgalem town.

3.3 Target population of the study

The subjects of this study was selected from, managers and employees of Yamare and
Aregash Hotels.

3.4 Sampling technique and sample size

The study will be used probability and non probability sampling technique to collect
necessary data. In the non probability mainly used purposive, select the sample from
the hotel managers. To know the hotel employees by using the following formula:
n=N/1+N (e)
Given n=sample size
N=Total population
1=Constant number
e=calculation error
n=N/1+N (e)
n=218/1+218(0.10)
n=69

The target population the study is in Yamare and Aregash hotel employees is take

As a sample size to represent the entire population to cover the sample size of
n=69, the time and financial limitation, the researcher was used 30 sample from
the sample size of 69,

In order to select sample size from total employee of Ezana anaTourist hotel by using

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stratified sampling, because the population is stratified sampling technique.
nH= (Nh/N)*n
nH=sample size of each strata
NH = total population each strata
N=total population both
N=total sample size
nE= (NE/N)*n
nE =(20/200)*30
nE=3
nT=(NT/N)*n
nT= (198/218)*30
nT=27
nE+nT=30
The researcher was take 30 respondents from both Yamare and Aregash loge
employees by using simple random technique in lottery system.

3.5 Source of data

When conducting this research, to collect information, primary and secondary sources
of data will be used. Primary source of data, the researcher was used hotel managers
and employees. A secondary source of data will be collected from published and
unpublished of various books and different types of documents, in addition to, the
researcher has used internet a source of secondary data.

3.6 Data collection instruments

The study will be used types of data collection methods that are questionnaires,
observation and interview. The above data collection methods and instruments help to
get concert and useful data from the study subjects.

3.7 Method of data analysis and interpretation

The study will be used both qualitative and quantitative data analyze method. The
qualitative data will be analyzed through descriptive method. And the quantitative
data was analyzed through frequency, percentage and tabulation.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

4. TIME SCHEDULE AND BUDGET BREAK DOWN

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 4.1.2 Time schedule

Duration
May Jun Jul Aug Sep
No Activisty W1 W2 W1 W2 W1 W2
1 Preparation of x
proposal
2 submission of x
proposal
3 sample size X
determination
4 Preparation of x
question
5 Distributing x
question
6 data collection x
7 Data analysis x
and variable
8 Interpretation
the result
9 check final
work
10 submissions of
paper
11 presentation
the research
paper

4.2 Budget Breakdown

No Material requirement or Unit cost (in Number of Total cost
activities birr) units required
1 Pen and pencil 6 4 24

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 2 Flash Memory/4GB 240 1 240
3 Paper 0.5 100 50
4 Telephone expense 10 5card 50
5 Transportation and Rent 180km 130
6 Fee for data collector 160 2persons 320
7 Typing and printing 3 50 150
8 Miscellaneous cost 100
Total cost 1064

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