British Columbia's tourism industry ranks as one of the province's largest economic sectors in terms of employment and revenue, directly employing 129,000 people and generating a $12.7 billion¹ in visitor revenues in 2009.
Following is a snapshot of BC’s tourism workforce and projections for skilled tourism workers required over the next decade to support the industry’s growth:
- Based on industry growth patterns BC's tourism industry will need 84,000 more skilled workers in the next decade², that's an average of one new job every hour for the next 10 years
- Tourism accounts for more than 129,000 direct jobs in British Columbia¹
- Workers needed by 2015 by sector are as follows: 44,000 new workers for Food and Beverage Services; 19,000 new workers for Accommodation Services; 13,000 new workers for Adventure Tourism and Outdoor Recreation; 8,000 new workers for Attractions; 500 new workers for Travel Services²
- By 2015 the following positions will see the most demand: 11,500 more professional chefs and cooks, 12,600 new managers and supervisors for the Food and Beverage Sector, and 5,000 more managers for the Accommodation sector, and 3,700 more leaders in the outdoor recreation sector³
- Specifically, Managers in Food Service and Accommodation will have 36 per cent more openings than people available from the labour pool to fill them. A deficit of 8,601 for the whole period from 2003 to 2015³
- The 2010 Winter Olympics were projected to create 34,000 tourism-related jobs. Four out of every 10 of these jobs will be created outside the Mainland/Southwest region of the province³. Tourism-related incremental growth outside this region will include: 9,674 jobs in the Vancouver Island/Coast region, 6,966 openings in the Thompson/Okanagan region, 2,217 in the Kootenay region, 1,846 in the Cariboo, and 2,318 in the rest of the province.
- In addition to generating revenue for British Columbian businesses and creating employment, the tourism industry returns approximately $1 billion to the provincial treasury in the form of taxes and fees every year⁴.
Media Contact:
Arlene Keis, go2
604-633-9787 ext 222
akeis@go2hr.ca
¹ From BC Stats' BC Tourism and High Technology GDP and Employment
² From BC Tourism HRD Task Force Research Report: Recruit, Retain & Train: Developing a Super, Natural Tourism Workforce in British Columbia
³ Roslyn Kunin and Associates report titled: 2010 Winter Games Labour Supply and Gap Analysis
⁴ Statistics courtesy of Council of Tourism Associations of British Columbia (COTA)
