Abstract
Labour shortage, a long-standing issue facing the tourism industry worsened due to the COVID-19 crisis. Research shows that the global pandemic has caused tremendous concerns for tourism employees worldwide over their job security, health and wellbeing. Such concerns may trigger employees’ decision to leave the industry, exacerbating the labour crisis in the post COVID period. However, there is limited empirical evidence that quantifies the relationship between employee wellbeing and their decision to remain or leave the industry due to a global pandemic. Using survey data from 417 tourism employees in Australia and logistic regression models, this research examines the factors affecting wellbeing of tourism employees and provides empirical evidence on the link between wellbeing and industry retention in the COVID-19 context. The results show that workplace support for health has a positive impact on the wellbeing of tourism employees in the crisis period. Evidence further demonstrates that a substantial proportion of surveyed employees (48%) wanted to leave the tourism industry, reflecting the ongoing situation as tourism recorded the highest retention difficulty rate among all Australian industries. The models also reveal that wellbeing and salary have a significant and positive relationship with industry retention. Employees aged 50 and older and those who hold a management position are more likely to retain in tourism, while casual employees are less likely to stay compared to full-time employees. The findings provide important implications to tourism organisations in developing appropriate support for employees’ health and wellbeing to increase their retention in the tourism industry.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Critical Issues in Tourism and Leisure Studies
KEYWORDS
WELLBEING, RETENTION, COVID-19, CRISIS, AUSTRALIA
