This is even more so in the tourism industry, which is all
about people and how to handle and manage them. However,
according to Zagonari (2009) and Lee-Ross and Pryce (2010),
training in the tourism industry has historically not been a
priority because of the high staff and cost turnover, especially
in small businesses and organisations that feared that trained
employees would be poached by competitors. Ladkin (2005)
and D’Annunzio-Green et al. (2004) note that, in this industry,
labour characteristics such as occupational diversity, relatively
low pay rates, high levels of mobility, small organisations,
low specificity of skills as well as the inability to assess the
benefit of training and the expertise required to provide
training have been identified as hindering and discouraging
the provision of continuous employee training in tourism.
Janes (2003) avers that the key to providing effective training
lies firstly in reducing and eliminating barriers to training
for organisations, and then in promoting an organisational
culture that is committed to training as well as providing
expertise in training design and delivery. This commitment
should also be applied to the tourism industry.