ABSTRACT
The importance of the quality of the tourism workforce has been noted in a range of studies and over a number of countries (for example, Baum, 1992; Pearce, Morrison and Rutledge, 1998; Swarbrooke, 1995). Summarizing tourism trends to the year 2000 and beyond, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) states:
The capacity of educational institutions in most countries to train staff at all levels, and for all the wide range of skills required for the travel and tourism sector has rarely been adequate. There is a danger that this problem will worsen during the 1990s at all levels, in all categories and in every type of tourist-receiving country. Human resources could emerge as the single most important issue facing tourism operators in the next century.
(WTO, 1992: 40)