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Tourism and hospitality employment have long faced widely recognised challenges with regard to employment, its workforce and the workplace environment, issues that have been addressed by generations of policymakers and practitioners without evident success or solution. These wicked problems are frequently characterised by inherent paradoxes and, therefore, accepting the tenets of paradox theory provides the basis for recognising the need to accept contradictions as a reality which a search for solutions will not resolve. This chapter presents six examples of wicked problems in tourism and hospitality employment, which are underpinned by paradoxes as proxies for the much wider range of intractable problems that beset policy-making and practice in this vital area of tourism and hospitality. The chapter concludes by suggesting ways in which wicked problems can be accommodated, and stakeholders can learn to understand and live with paradoxes.

A lot of research and studies have focused on how tourism might help a country's economy growth in recent years. Year after year, governments throughout the world pump a ton of money into tourist infrastructure because everyone knows it boosts economies. These days, tourism is a major force in the growth and prosperity of nations. According to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council and the World Tourism Organization, the tourism sector supported 320 million jobs, or 10% of all employment, and generated 10.4% of the world's GDP (gross domestic product) in 2018–2019. This sector is vital to the growth and economy of approximately 191 countries and 25 regions. The leisure industry received a disproportionate share of total expenditure (79% vs 22% for businesses), and it was responsible for 7% of all exports worldwide and 27.5% of all service exports. Domestic tourism accounted for 71.2% of all tourist expenditure in 2018–2019, with emerging nations witnessing the fastest rise. By fostering a sense of national pride and disseminating development and regional economic benefits, domestic tourism promotes possibilities. Without a doubt, novel advancements are possible atop these preexisting elements. As a means of economic progress, cultural exchange and the cultivation of mutual love, travel is becoming increasingly important as some countries turn inward.

Tourism and events have been identified as providing opportunities to revitalize regional and remote economies. In Australia such areas have limited economic opportunities and are constrained by a range of development barriers, including access to markets and human capital. Importantly, tourism in particular is seen as an economic activity that provides scope for Indigenous communities and individuals in regional and remote parts of the country to leverage development opportunities. A number of the island communities of the Torres Strait, the most northern region in Australia, are exploring the potential of tourism and events as an economic development strategy, yet the region is severely constrained by a number of development barriers.

Based on reflections of the issues encountered from ethnographic studies aboard ocean-going merchant ships and a seafaring community in the Philippines, pressure points on seafarers' lives that situate them in a precarious situation are explored. Due to the pandemic, the decline in total remittances was due to a huge fall in sea-based remittances of about 81% in 2020. The widespread loss of jobs has magnified vulnerabilities in the seafaring sector. The emergent exploration of worker vulnerability in cruise tourism industry is useful in identifying the necessary support for cruise workers to mitigate the long-term undesired effects of the pandemic. The fieldwork also reveals that the demand placed upon seafarers' daily and organizational lives are gendered. Women and men are differently constituted in the shipping and tourism industries which affect work opportunities and family values. The chapter aims to contribute to the discussion on inclusivity vis-a-vis the recovery plan of destination tourism by underlining the gender dynamics in cruise tourism, as it aligns with the general roadmap of growth for Southeast Asian cruise tourism program. We show that the transnational nature of cruise tourism on both labour and employment is interlinked with destination tourism, and the gender dynamics identified and reviewed will help identify and further promote inclusivity in the regional recovery tourism plan.

Purpose: The purpose of the chapter lies in identifying the challenges that female employees in the South African hospitality industry will face in the context of the economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Design: With this aim, we developed a questionnaire that has been filled by 101 hospitality professionals in order to explore the work security and perceived opportunities of people working in hospitality in South Africa.

Findings: Our findings confirm that South African women feel more uncertainty about their occupational future and are more afraid that they will not find a job within the tourism sector, even though it is one of the sectors where female employment is higher.

Research Limitations: The study was limited by the lack of literature regarding impact on gender disparities due to lockdown and the relative short period of time during which the data were collected. We recommend that future research should measure long-term effects of COVID-19 pandemic on this issue.

Practical/Social Implications: In order to alleviate the damage done by the post-COVID-19 lockdown on the South African tourist and hospitality industries policies addressing the accessibility of female workers to the job market need to be urgently developed and implemented.

Originality: Ours is the first research ever focussing on the gender inequalities in the tourism labour market in South Africa.

Using a critical employment relations approach, the chapter illustrates the implications of labour market reforms for workers. It traces changes in public policy and includes worker reflections on their conditions from data collected during 2018–2019. It unravels the antagonistic and conflict-driven elements of the employment relationship; a relationship that has been re-shaped by the active role of the State whose intervention favoured the employers' side at the expense of employees' interests. In addition, to shed light on the effects of the pandemic that broke out in February–March 2020, the chapter also draws upon secondary data such as newspaper articles and reports, as access to workers during the pandemic was practically difficult while the latter is still evolving. The chapter concludes by demonstrating that the crisis and labour market reforms was an opportunity for employers to introduce and implement a cost-cutting agenda that was in clear conflict with basic facets of a decent work agenda.

There is an essential link between the success of hospitality organizations and the availability of appropriate labor resources, making employee attraction a critical concern for the industry. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the role of work experience, both inside and outside the hospitality industry, in shaping students’ attitudes toward hospitality careers. The study was conducted on the group of 338 undergraduates and graduates enrolled in tourism and hospitality studies in Poznan, Poland. The findings suggest that work experience displays a stronger relationship with preferred than with perceived job and organization attributes. It is also related to perceptions of hospitality career attractiveness both in the long and in the short run as well as to intentions to apply for a job after graduation. The results underline the importance of providing students with quality work experience by the hospitality industry stakeholders as it can influence future career decisions.

Tourism is considered to be one of the fastest growing industries with huge potential for economic development and economic reform, especially in developing countries. It directly contributes in the economy not only by earning foreign exchange but also makes a direct contribution through multiplier effect. Diversified tourism methods that promote employment opportunities and business practices provide new innovations and methods to meet the diverse needs of tourists in domestic and international markets. The contribution of women in the global business world has increased in recent years, especially in the hospitality and tourism industry. Their contributions are not only restricted as employees but also equally in business and entrepreneurship. These women have become major actors in the tourism entrepreneurial arena despite facing inequality in a perceived male-dominated environment. In the tourism industry, the proportion of women working in the industry is high, but their roles are mainly engaged in unskilled, low-paid jobs. This chapter will emphasize the opportunities for women in the tourism industry. A brief discussion on the various challenges women face, mainly in terms of a lack of appropriate training and education within the tourism industry sector that might adequately support their business ventures, as well as in relation to lacking sufficient access to finance for their business(es), is provided in this chapter. Significant and rapid measures are needed to support the tourism industry; henceforth, this chapter will also focus on the significant policies and strategies adopted by government and private players to change the role of women in this industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on Jamaica's tourism industry. In an industry already exposed to a multiplicity of challenges ranging from climatic change to globalization, the imposition of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in both pace and magnitude. Accommodation workers in the tourism industry are particularly vulnerable to these impacts given the travel restrictions and visitor skepticism which prompted the closure of many hotels. Such vulnerability may be compounded by intersections of gender, age, education, and skill set. A recent study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) (2020) indicates that the accommodation sector in Jamaica is dominated by female workers who are likely to be pushed into precarious employment circumstances. This chapter utilized a concurrent triangulation mixed methods approach to explore the experiences and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 on accommodation workers in Negril, Jamaica, and the strategies deployed to navigate challenging circumstances. The main findings indicated that while most persons were able to retain their jobs, the impacts were tremendous as experienced through decreased workdays and work hours with women being disproportionately affected in comparison to men. These impacts also had significant implications for food and financial security forcing a lot of individuals to rely on limited savings or to budget by prioritizing these needs which were among the coping methods identified. Of great importance within the coping methods was the leveraging of social capital, particularly through family networks which resulted in remittances and other resources to mitigate the impacts posed by the pandemic.