Exclusive survey reveals that almost 60% of travel and tourism staff won’t consider returning to the industry as the UK awaits an update on travel restrictions

With an announcement from Transport secretary, Grant Shapps, immanent, an exclusive survey of travel and tourism workers by CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job board, reveals the views of those on the inside of the industry that’s been grounded by the global pandemic.

A resounding 68.4% of respondents, asked this week, believe that there will be a shortage of workers and 58.1% say they aren’t considering returning when the industry is fully operational. A further 42.1% also said they knew of colleagues who have decided to leave the sector since the onset of COVID-19.

Unsurprisingly, when asked why they left, the main reason was that the industry had shut down and the jobs were no longer available. However, almost a third of respondents (30%) felt the industry was too unpredictable and have moved on to new careers. There was also a belief amongst almost half (47.2%) of tourism workers that salary and benefits are now worse than in pre-pandemic times.

CV-Library also asked travel and tourism professionals their views on the Government’s new traffic light system. Interestingly, over half (52.7%) felt it was confusing but would eventually be forgotten, 31.9% felt it had made things worse and only 15.4% believed it had helped.

When asked about concerns for the rest of 2021, a third of respondents (31%) were most concerned about the decisions the UK Government will make going forward. This is closely followed by the cost of COVID testing for travellers (30%), the fear that people will be too hesitant to travel (21.6%) and finally concerns over decisions made by the EU (17.4%).

Lee Biggins, CEO and founder of CV-library comments: “These results should be alarming for employers, but, sadly, they aren’t surprising. We’ve all witnessed the impact of this pandemic on the hospitality sector and the travel and tourism industry has been the hardest hit sector of all. As such, a shortage of candidates when the restrictions are lifted feels somewhat inevitable.”

Biggins continues: “It’s crucial that businesses take notice of these results and listen to job seekers. There are plenty of staff out there but, in order to recruit, businesses can’t just pick up where they left off. Competitive pay and benefits must be offered, and with the industry unlikely to be provided with much notice to get back up and running, those with the strongest employer proposition will win the race for talent.”