This is the first in a series of five posts exploring what 170 tourism SMEs across Europe reported in RESKILL survey about skills, training, and the future of work in hospitality.
It’s not just about the money. The skills gap is an issue.
When we surveyed 170 tourism SMEs across six European countries, the responses suggested something worth paying attention to — not just for tourism, but for anyone thinking about workforce challenges in customer-facing industries.
We all know that money matters: hospitality and tourism struggle to attract workers because they can’t compete on wages. Surprisingly, money wasn’t the most reported issue.
What the Data Showed
We asked employers about their biggest recruitment challenges. The results were striking:
“Lack of qualified candidates” came up 93 times — the most frequently mentioned challenge by far. Salary expectations mismatch was mentioned 58 times. Work schedule and seasonality issues followed with 49 mentions.
This is an interesting pattern, which is worth noticing. Even accounting for the sample size, it’s telling that “we can’t find the right skills” came up so much more often than “we can’t afford to pay enough.” It suggests the talent crisis in European tourism isn’t only a wage problem. There’s a skills dimension too.
Wages and Skills
Let’s be clear: fair wages matter. Tourism and hospitality have real challenges around pay, working conditions, and career progression. The survey results don’t counter that.
However, the employers we heard from are also saying something else: even when they can offer competitive packages, they’re struggling to find candidates with the capabilities they need.
What capabilities? Our survey pointed to a few consistent themes:
- Service design thinking — understanding the whole customer experience, not just individual tasks — was rated as a top priority across all six countries we surveyed. (We’ll explore this finding in depth in our next post.)
- Digital skills like data analysis and social media management came up repeatedly. Not because every SME needs a data team, but because employers increasingly need staff who can read and act on information, communicate digitally, and use tools confidently.
- Adaptability — handling change, solving unexpected problems, staying resilient — became more valued after the disruptions of recent years.
These capabilities, by the way, aren’t unique to tourism. They translate directly into retail, healthcare, logistics, and any industry where people serve customers. The skills gap we’re seeing in tourism is a window into something broader.
Why This Matters Now
What is most worth noting is that the businesses responding to the survey don’t paint a picture that hospitality sector would be in decline.
Over half the businesses we surveyed (53%) have fully recovered or are actively growing post-pandemic — with Poland leading at 67%. The challenges we’re describing aren’t necessarily symptoms business slowing down, they seem to be rather indicating growth constraints.
That makes sense, as the demand is returning. Businesses in the hospitality industry are seeking to expand. However, the most successful ones are hitting a ceiling: they can’t find people with the right skills to grow with them.
That reframes the talent crisis. It’s not just a hiring headache — it’s a brake limiting growth and recovery of the sector.
An Invitation to Think Differently
A survey of 170 businesses across six countries gives us a window which is worth looking through.
If the talent crisis — in tourism and beyond — is partly about skills, not only wages, that opens up possibilities. Skills can be developed. Training can be redesigned for how businesses actually operate. Pathways can be created for people to enter or progress in customer-facing industries.
That’s not a substitute for addressing wages and economic growth fuelling demand for services, but it is an additional lever. It is also one that employers, educators, and policymakers can start pulling now.
Stay tuned for more insights on the survey results! Next in this series: The One Skill Every Country Agrees On — why service design thinking topped the priority list in all six countries, and what that signals for the future of customer-facing work.
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The RESKILL project (Reskill Revolution: Pioneering Change in Adult Education) is co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme. Survey data with responses from tourism SMEs in Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Spain.
