Leading hospitality and tourism industry professionals gathered at the Conrad Hong Kong to attend Diageo's Women in Tourism & Hospitality (WITH) Forum for the launch of a White Paper entitled 'Women in Tourism and Hospitality: Unlocking the Potential in the Talent Pool' developed by the Hospitality Industry Pipeline (HIP) Coalition on March 5.
Professor Tom Baum, head of the department of Human Resource Management, was one of the research partners for the White Paper and spoke at the forum.
The White Paper was launched ahead of International Women's Day, as part of Diageo's ongoing 'Plan W: Empowering Women through Learning' community engagement initiative that also seeks to address the hospitality industry's talent needs to ensure long-term sustainable growth.
Two thirds of the global hospitality industry workforce is comprised of women and 73 million new travel and tourism jobs will be created by 2022. However, the UN World Tourism Organisation asserts that women in this sector are still underpaid, under-utilised, under-educated, and under-represented. The aim of the HIP Coalition and White Paper is to raise awareness of the pressing talent issues facing the hospitality sector and lead the industry to identify, share and promote best practice in recruitment, employment, diversity and inclusion.
Led by Diageo, members of the Coalition include Accor Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, Sala Baï Hotel and Restaurant School and CARE International. Research partners for the White Paper are Professor Baum and Associate Professor Catherine Cheung from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who is an SBS alumnus.
Professor Baum was also keynote speaker at the International Conference on Cold Water island Tourism this month. Held on Arran, it attracted over 150 delegates from throughout northern Europe. He spoke on the relationship of tourism to the wider island economy, with particular focus on employment creation and sustainability.
Professor Tom Baum has also been notified by the British Council of a successful bid to the Newton Fund for Institutional Links in conjunction with the University of the Philippines.
This two year study will look at tourism employment in two SMART cities (Glasgow and Manila) and aims to identify more effective research methodologies for the assembly and evaluation of data in this area. The value of the grant is £90,000.