21% of Middle East and North African (MENA) hotel staff made redundant, 75% find new jobs within industry, says report.

Despite 21 percent of Middle East and North African (MENA) hotel staff being made redundant in the last 12 months, more than three quarters have found new jobs within the industry, says a report by Catererglobal.com – one of the world's top hospitality recruitment websites.

Being launched at Arabian Travel Market 2009 – which runs May 5-8th at Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre – the report, which surveyed over 2,500 regional hospitality professionals, reveals how hotels are streamlining department costs to hedge against the next few years' expected turbulence by increasing job cuts.

However, Catererglobal.com's Sales Director, Peter Willis, believes drastic redundancies may prove to have more damaging, long-term knock-on effects for operators.

"With many properties feeling the credit crunch strain, human resource departments have been forced to severely cut costs in order to balance the books and deliver on their stakeholder or shareholder obligations," said Willis.

"However, sudden, wide-scale redundancies may lead to future problems, including incurring heavy costs - both in terms of time and money - to recruit and train new employees when market conditions improve. Although only 39 percent of pipeline hotel projects are going ahead, there are still 86,000 confirmed hotel rooms forecasted to come online by 2011 in the Gulf region alone, and this figure will undoubtedly create more job opportunities."

As well as earmarking the geographical sources and demographic breakdowns of the Middle East's hospitality staff, the 2009 report also underlines how important staff retention will be in the regional industry's post-downturn recovery.

"The response to this year's survey has been overwhelming and in the current economic climate, the retention of quality staff remains a critical issue; perhaps even more so, with other service sectors looking to tap into the hospitality industry's skill base. Currently, about half of the region's Human Resource Directors are facing staff retention dilemmas," said Willis.

"To ensure market share in the long-term, hotels should be investing in staff training to maintain service quality and safeguard brand delivery.  It is the hotels which realise its people are its brand, and seek to maintain service quality, which will see their properties' market share boosted when conditions becomes more stable.

"It is extremely encouraging that, according to the survey, 67 percent of Human Resource Directors have recently increased learning and development opportunities to address staff retention."

Arabian Travel Market's ‘Recruitment and Retention Seminar', on Wednesday 6th May, will explore ways in which hotels can put into practice alternatives to making staff redundant, with a panel of senior hospitality experts - led by Catererglobal.com - sharing their experiences.
                                      
With 25 panellists covering 18 free-of-charge sessions, Arabian Travel Market 2009's expanded seminar programme is the largest to date. Over three days, leading industry decision makers will discuss hot topics including the opportunities and challenges facing the rise of medical tourism; the growth of Golf Tourism; the outlook for the Gulf meetings industry, the rise of religious tourism and the future of Middle East air travel.

"The travel and tourism industry continues to evolve to meet challenges head on; it is one of the core fundamentals of why this dynamic sector remains buoyant and so successful. The foundation of our flexibility in meeting change is our capacity to share ideas and solutions. This reasoning is at the heart of Arabian Travel Market's seminar programme," said Mark Walsh, Group Exhibitions Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions – the company behind Arabian Travel Market 2009. 

In addition to discussion and debate, Reed Travel Exhibitions has also enhanced the show's business product offering, to increase interaction between the more than 2,000 exhibitors and 14,000 visitors expected this year. 

The show's Hosted Buyers programme - which identifies high-quality buyers in terms of purchasing and decision-making power - will increase to 150 top international, first time participants for 2009 – up from 120 last year.

In addition, Consumer & Careers Day - a programme designed to enable meetings between exhibitors and members of the general public with a keen interest to work within the industry or developing an existing career – will also debut this year. The initiative is held under the patronage of the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Education.

Travel Agents Day – which is designed to foster the latest top-class travel and tourism education among travel agents – also returns in a new-look format which affords destinations an opportunity to showcase their brand to the regional and international industry in a dedicated show-floor theatre.

Arabian Travel Market is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, and under the auspices of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai.

Visitor registration for Arabian Travel Market 2009 can be done through the show's dedicated website on www.arabiantravelmarket.com/registertoday