The UK's travel, tourism and hospitality industry trains more employees than any other sector but one in five companies still reports skills gaps, according to a survey by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

The survey, carried out on 79,000 businesses across sectors, revealed that two thirds of tourism and hospitality firms invest in some sort of training, which amounts to an average annual investment of £4m.

However, with one of the highest rates of staff turnovers and large skills gaps, the survey highlights the need for more businesses to get involved in training.

The LSC particularly focused on the bottom-line benefits such as productivity, profit margins and service quality derived from its Train to Gain programme – a government flagship programme aiming to advise employers on the best training solutions for their employees.

Nearly three-quarters of employers that used Train to Gain reported staff had improved their skills and their ability to do their job – 30 per cent of employees were also promoted as a result of the training.

The survey showed that 57 per cent of hotel and restaurant employers felt that training has increased staff retention and 66 per cent reported an increase in staff productivity and the quality of service.

Kevin Groom, branch manager of Martin's World Travel, said: "Training is helping our employees do an even better job, which, in turn, has boosted our profit margins by 15 per cent.

"Given that the tourism industry is constantly changing, there's no better way of keeping up to date than through training. Services like Train to Gain make this an easy commitment to make."

LSC expects that by 2010 over 500,000 learner will have achieved a first full level 2 qualification (equivalent to five GCSEs) through Train to Gain.

Detail: traintogain.gov.uk