The In­ter­na­tion­al Labour Or­gan­i­sa­tion (ILO) has an­nounced the need to de­sign poli­cies aimed at the re­cov­ery of tourism in Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean coun­tries, which will pro­mote one of the most dy­nam­ic eco­nom­ic sec­tors es­sen­tial for the gen­er­a­tion of for­eign ex­change, in­come and jobs.

Tourism was hit hard by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, ac­cord­ing to a new re­gion­al tech­ni­cal note from the ILO.

While the num­ber of to­tal em­ployed per­sons con­tract­ed on av­er­age by 24.8 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter of 2020, the loss of jobs in the ho­tel and restau­rant sec­tor in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean to­talled 44.7 per cent, it not­ed.

“The re­cov­ery of tourism de­pends di­rect­ly on the ad­vance­ment of vac­ci­na­tions and the adop­tion of ad­e­quate safe­ty and health mea­sures at work. The re­ac­ti­va­tion of this sec­tor may have an im­por­tant mul­ti­pli­er ef­fect on the econ­o­my and em­ploy­ment, which may be cru­cial to over­come the cri­sis gen­er­at­ed by the pan­dem­ic,” Viní­cius Pin­heiro, ILO Re­gion­al Di­rec­tor for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean said.

He added that it is es­sen­tial that the re­cov­ery poli­cies for the sec­tor con­tribute to im­prov­ing the qual­i­ty of jobs and stim­u­late the for­mal­i­sa­tion of the labour mar­ket.

“Sup­port­ing mi­cro and small busi­ness­es is al­so cru­cial for the ben­e­fits of tourism to favour lo­cal de­vel­op­ment,” Pin­heiro added.

Ti­tled–To­wards a sus­tain­able re­cov­ery of em­ploy­ment in the tourism sec­tor in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean– the tech­ni­cal note is part of the Labour Overview se­ries of the ILO Re­gion­al Of­fice.

It high­lights that be­fore the pan­dem­ic, in 2019, the tourism econ­o­my, which in­cludes both tourism and all the sec­tors that de­pend on it, ac­count­ed for 26 per cent of to­tal gross do­mes­tic prod­uct (GDP) in the Caribbean and 10 per cent in Latin Amer­i­ca.

The ILO said be­fore the pan­dem­ic, in­for­mal jobs in tourism out­weighed in­for­mal­i­ty in all oth­er ar­eas of em­ploy­ment: 63.3 per cent of work­ers in ho­tels and restau­rants in the re­gion worked in in­for­mal con­di­tions, while that per­cent­age was 51.8 per cent of to­tal em­ploy­ment.

The ILO added that tourism is char­ac­terised by a high­er per­cent­age of work­ers who worked short hours in 2019: un­der­em­ploy­ment af­fect­ed 25.9 per cent of to­tal work­ers and 31.2 per cent of those em­ployed in ho­tels and restau­rants.

In ad­di­tion it is a rel­a­tive­ly low-paid sec­tor: the in­come of tourism work­ers rep­re­sent­ed on av­er­age 75 per cent of the in­come of all per­sons em­ployed.

The ILO analy­sis al­so high­lights the need to de­sign poli­cies to pro­mote a re­cov­ery with pro­duc­tive em­ploy­ment, the cre­ation of de­cent work and sus­tain­able com­pa­nies in the tourism sec­tor, es­pe­cial­ly to face chal­lenges as­so­ci­at­ed with the high pres­ence of in­for­mal­i­ty, un­der­em­ploy­ment and low in­come.

Oth­er rec­om­men­da­tions in­clude need for digi­ti­sa­tion and ex­pan­sion of ca­pac­i­ties; pro­duc­tive trans­for­ma­tion and cre­ation of green jobs; and so­cial di­a­logue and strength­en­ing of co­or­di­na­tion and voice of the tourism sec­tor.

This week, the re­cov­ery of the tourism sec­tor will be the sub­ject of analy­sis dur­ing a vir­tu­al tri­par­tite meet­ing of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from gov­ern­ments and em­ploy­ers’ or­gan­i­sa­tions and work­ers’ or­gan­i­sa­tions.