According to the inaugural edition of TMP/Hudson Global Resources’ (TMP/HGR) Industry Insight survey, the UK’s tourism industry – already affected by the joint impacts of foot and mouth disease, 11 September and the war in Iraq – could now be facing staffing problems.

Two-thirds of UK tourism and leisure businesses do not believe staff within the industry possess the range of business skills required to bring about success in today’s commercial environment. Of the businesses surveyed, nine out of 10 consider such skills are critical to the success of the industry.

The survey further shows the sector could be heading for a staff retention crisis as pressure mounts on the employees remaining after redundancy programmes. Over half of businesses in the industry consider the increased workload being put on such people – often for the same or lower remuneration – could lead to difficulties retaining them in the medium term.

Problems retaining staff in the future could be particularly damaging for UK tourism, making worse a situation which the survey’s authors consider is "already blunting the industry’s competitive edge". Of the tourism bodies surveyed, 30 per cent said they were experiencing skills shortages and only 13 per cent have a long-term programme in place to tackle these shortages.

However, steps are being taken elsewhere to retain and develop staff, with 73 per cent of firms having a formal appraisal scheme in place, 50 per cent offering flexible working practises, 40 per cent making a high investment in training and 27 per cent providing mentoring schemes.

Richard Baker, UK head of tourism and leisure recruitment at TMP/HGR said: "The UK tourism and leisure industry will recover but the last thing that businesses should do is jeopardise any recovery with potential staffing issues. Firms should be thinking very carefully about how they are going to retain key staff, develop their skills and recruit additional employees when required." Details: www.hudsonresourcing.com