Hotel and Tourism

Hong Kong’s hotel industry can expect to remain robust in the second half of 2012. According to the Tourism Commission, the city welcomed a record 42 million visitors last year – a remarkable increase of 16.4 per cent over 2010. It’s also the first time that the number of arrivals surpassed the 40-million mark.

A surge in tourist arrivals translates to busy hotels. In 2011, the city’s average hotel occupancy rate was 89 per cent – 2 percentage points higher than in the previous year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many hotel employees received a bonus bonanza, with some getting four months’ salary.

Around 10 new hotels will open in Hong Kong this year. Thus, more job opportunities are to be expected. In fact, even more hotels will open their doors across the city in the next couple of years. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the number of local hotels is expected to expand from 177 in March last year to 231 in 2016.

What’s more, as the hotel industry continues to boom in Macau and on the mainland, Hong Kong hotel employees will have plenty of job options to choose from.

Like other service-oriented industries, the hotel sector requires a lot of customer interaction. Hence, young people who want to join the industry should be sociable. Of course, such passion means bright career prospects in this booming sector.

Dr Eric Chan, assistant professor, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, PolyU