In Kerala ayurvedic resorts employ a lot of people especially those offering massage and rejuvenation packages. Significantly, the health tourism industry is a highly labor intensive service industry and hence it offers a valuable source of employment to many. It employs large number of people and provides a wide range of jobs which extends from the unskilled to the highly specialized. This characteristic is extremely valuable for a country like India endowed with surplus manpower.
In addition to those involved in management of the different sections in a tourist resort, there are opportunities for a large number of specialist personnel to work as accountants, house-keepers, waiters, cooks and entertainers, who in turn, need a large number of semi-skilled workers such as porters, chambermaids, kitchen-staff, gardeners etc.
Moreover, it should be emphasized that tourism is also responsible for creating employment opportunities outside this industry in its more narrowly defined sense and in this respect those who supply goods and services to those directly involved in tourism are equal beneficiaries from tourism. Such indirect employment includes for example, for those involved in the furnishing and equipment industries, souvenir industries, farming and supply of essential goods.
Construction industry is another very big source of employment even though creation of tourism infrastructure is done by construction labor. The basic infrastructure like roads, airports, water supply and other public utilities and also the construction of hotels and other accommodation units create jobs for thousands of skilled and unskilled laborers.
One important feature of employment generated by tourism is its ‘seasonality’. It is observed that during the peak season, employment opportunities reach a very high level and during the off season the employment level touches the bottom. This raises an important problem for the hotel industry in particular. Efforts are generally made to even out the tourists’ registration by offering concessional rates during the off-season.
Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:42 pm