With the relaxation of border measures from the 11th and the start of the government's new measure to stimulate tourism demand, "National Travel Support," demand is expected to recover in the tourism industry, which has been greatly affected by the corona disaster.


However, even if they want to hire new employees, there are also lodging facilities that are struggling because it is difficult to secure personnel.

A ryokan in Kinugawa Onsen in Tochigi Prefecture has been receiving inquiries about tours for foreign tourists almost every day since the relaxation of measures against the waterfront was announced late last month.

The other day, a travel agency contacted us saying, "Can we make reservations for a total of 240 tourists from Taiwan in November, the autumn leaves season?" .



However, what this ryokan is currently struggling with is securing staff.



It is said that it is becoming difficult to recruit people even if they are recruiting, as sales in the travel and accommodation industry as a whole are sluggish due to the prolonged corona wreck.



This ryokan is also planning to hire about 10 new graduates who will join the company next spring, but as economic activity resumes and various industries are hiring more, the number of applications from students has decreased compared to last year and the year before. .



In addition, part-time employees are more difficult to recruit than before the spread of the new corona infection.

For this reason, the ryokan is looking for ways to streamline operations without sacrificing service quality in order to cope with the labor shortage.



All guest rooms are equipped with tablet devices.



In addition to making it easier to understand information about the ryokan and frequently asked questions, we made it possible to spread out the use of guests by making it possible to understand the congestion level of the public bath and the front desk.



We are trying to reduce the burden on our employees.

Emi Namiki, president of Kinugawa Grand Hotel Yume no Toki, said, "Ryokan's selling point is emotion, and interaction between people is important, so we can't omit people there. However, there are a few others. But we have to think about where we can save labor and deal with the labor shortage."

Rickshaws too... Concern about labor shortage spreads

While tourism demand is expected to recover, concerns about labor shortages are spreading across various industries.



A company in Asakusa, Tokyo, has been gaining popularity among tourists by providing tourist information by rickshaw and experiencing Japanese culture such as tea ceremony and calligraphy, even before the spread of the new coronavirus.



However, the company was forced to temporarily close due to the coronavirus pandemic, and many people left their jobs. decreased from five to three.



The company began to see signs of a recovery in tourism demand and resumed hiring in earnest around spring, but not only did it not receive as many applications as it had hoped,


and the training of the hired employees


was at least 1 in the case of rickshaws. ▽We need more than one

year


of employees to teach Japanese culture such as the tea ceremony, so we are not in a situation where we can increase the number of people immediately.

Hidenori Fujiwara, CEO of Jidaiya, said, "The past two years of the corona crisis have been really long and I can't see the future at all, but I'm relieved that foreign tourists can finally come. The tourism industry is now all at once. I want to return the staff to the pre-corona system as soon as possible, but the quality of service cannot be lowered, so I would like to proceed with recruitment little by little while suppressing my impatience." I was talking to

Labor shortage at inns and hotels revealed by private survey

The shortage of workers at ryokan and hotels has also been revealed in private surveys.



Teikoku Databank, a private credit research company, conducts monthly surveys of about 26,000 companies nationwide in about 50 industries.



According to the latest survey results as of August, by industry, 72.8% of companies in the "ryokan / hotel" industry responded that they were "lack of full-time employees", the highest among the surveyed industries. became.



It is 45.5 points higher than the same month last year and is the second highest level ever after June 2019 before corona.



In addition, 67.9% of non-regular employees in the "ryokan/hotel" industry answered that they were "shortage."



It seems that the background of this situation is that the summer vacation without movement restrictions for the first time in three years has suddenly increased the sense of busyness.



According to the Japan Tourism Agency, the ``occupancy rate'', which indicates the utilization rate of guest rooms such as domestic hotels and inns, exceeded 50% for the first time since March last year, as a preliminary figure in August.



In the future, as tourism demand is expected to recover further, it will be a challenge to develop a system to accept tourists, such as dealing with labor shortages.