Digital transformation affects all components of the tourism value chain, from the decision-making process of the visitors and the way tourism businesses communicate with their clients to the distribution of the tourism products, the offer of innovative tourism services and the work organization at company level.
An important part of this impact concerns the digital skills of the tourism human workforce, both at employee and manager level, required for running tourism businesses. In many tourism sectors, the nature of work is changing. New skills are required from the extant workforce and new specialities need to be introduced in the labour market, changes that affect the workforce entry conditions in the labour market by creating opportunities but most importantly challenges.
These changes seem to be accelerating due to the new conditions created in the tourism market by the current pandemic, which reinforces the need for evidence-based and effective policy interventions. The ongoing debate at the international and European levels on the digital transformation of the tourism businesses (for example the discussions in the framework of the European Tourism Forum that took place in October 2019 and the 104th OECD Commission) intensifies due to the new conditions created by the pandemic.
The present research attempts to examine these issues by taking stock of the current situation in our country and by assessing the views of the stakeholders on this issue. The research was conducted from August to November 2020 by the Department of Research for Research Studies and Documentation of the Directorate of Research of the Ministry of Tourism, on the occasion of wider research conducted by the OECD with the title “Preparing the tourism workforce for the digital future”.
Digital transformation affects all components of the tourism value chain, from the decision-making process of the visitors and the way tourism businesses communicate with their clients to the distribution of the tourism products, the offer of innovative tourism services and the work organization at company level.
An important part of this impact concerns the digital skills of the tourism human workforce, both at employee and manager level, required for running tourism businesses. In many tourism sectors, the nature of work is changing. New skills are required from the extant workforce and new specialities need to be introduced in the labour market, changes that affect the workforce entry conditions in the labour market by creating opportunities but most importantly challenges.
These changes seem to be accelerating due to the new conditions created in the tourism market by the current pandemic, which reinforces the need for evidence-based and effective policy interventions. The ongoing debate at the international and European levels on the digital transformation of the tourism businesses (for example the discussions in the framework of the European Tourism Forum that took place in October 2019 and the 104th OECD Commission) intensifies due to the new conditions created by the pandemic.
The present research attempts to examine these issues by taking stock of the current situation in our country and by assessing the views of the stakeholders on this issue. The research was conducted from August to November 2020 by the Department of Research for Research Studies and Documentation of the Directorate of Research of the Ministry of Tourism, on the occasion of wider research conducted by the OECD with the title “Preparing the tourism workforce for the digital future”.
.webp)