The tourism and hotel industry: new uses, new growth and new jobs?

Home » All our news » The tourism and hotel industry: new uses, new growth and new jobs?

Our MSc2 Tourism Marketing & Hospitality Management students travel to Burgundy
(February 2020)

In this series of articles launched by the INSEEC Paris MSc & MBA programs, we give the floor to the pedagogical directors of our programs to discuss topics of interest or current events in our fields of expertise. For this second essay, Fabien Fournillon, Director of Communication, Digital & Marketing, takes up the pen  to tell us about the tourism and hotel industries. While these sectors have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 health crisis, they both have great cards to play to reinvent and recover. Crisis after crisis, these industries have always risen and different forms of tourism, closer to nature such as wine tourism, will undoubtedly gain ground after populations. 

The tourism and hospitality industry, resilient in essence ?

There are countless articles and other studies that describe the ” catastrophic ” situation of this industry in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic that affects half of our planet. It is true that this crisis will leave its mark. But these traces will undoubtedly be a way to reinvent themselves for this sector which weighs almost 7% of the French GDP (source: French Government). The tourism sector has experienced multiple crises in different forms.

This unprecedented health crisis is not the first. It is added to exogenous crises of various kinds : diplomatic tensions, security threats, environmental upheavals without forgetting the deeper structural crises caused by the arrival of new players and the evolution of new consumer habits. All of these phenomena are contributing to the upheaval of this industry, even to the point of calling into question some of its ” business models ” that were previously well established. If we stick to these ”   ” findings, we could think that this industry is doomed.

However, there are many more reasons for hope than one might think. Indeed, crisis after crisis, this key sector of our economy has continued to gain in importance by its weight in our economy. The projections (before the crisis of Covid-19) even let foresee a progression of the sector of the tourism and the hotel industry to nearly 10% of our national wealth. France has all the assets to maintain its leading position in the concert of nations in the tourism and hotel sector with nearly 60 billion Euros in revenues generated in 2019.

Cultural and gastronomic heritage, geographical and territorial diversity, innovative cultural offer, dynamism of business tourism, central geographical position, modern transport infrastructures, diversified hotel offer, recognized know-how, highly qualified personnel : all these assets suggest that once this crisis is overcome, this industry will be able to restart and reinvent itself.

The sad events that our country experienced in 2015, should in this sense reassure us on some points, even if their roots were of a very different nature. It certainly took almost two years to reverse this situation, but 2018 marked a real turning point insofar as it allowed us to return to the growth of tourist numbers in our country.

Investing and reinventing : the key to tomorrow’s jobs ?

Despite these ” vicissitudes “, it is a safe bet that this sector will continue to recruit in the coming months and years. Projections in terms of salaried employment predict that the entire sector could represent between 2.8 million and 3.3 million jobs by 2028, or a share of the workforce equivalent to almost 11.2% of total employment in France. The traditional business functions will of course be well represented, but it is also towards the new professions that we will have to turn.

The changes in consumer habits accelerated by the emergence of new players with disruptive effects on this industry represent a considerable source of new businesses to explore.

The recruitment of profiles in marketing and digital marketing skills will therefore be sought by the players in this sector. Knowing the mechanics of acquisition levers in natural referencing, in paid referencing or in Social Media will also be highly coveted skills. This transformation of professions must be seen as an opportunity because it opens up countless possibilities for any young person who wishes to combine his passion with his skills.

Today, there are countless digital experiments set up by the players in this industry. Virtual tours and experiences, digital communication campaigns, new e-influence strategies, e-reputation management, and the use of ” data ” will play a decisive role for all players in the hotel and tourism industry. Finally, wouldn’t reinventing ourselves consist in putting back at the heart of a strategy focused on the customer experience ?

With the emergence of these new professions, the tourism and hotel industries will be able to concentrate on what they do best: receiving guests with an increased and increasingly differentiated quality of service.

These new skill requirements have enabled us to build a specialized program, the MSc2 Tourism Marketing & Hospitality Management, which combines both fundamental skills and the new digital skill requirements expressed by the players in this sector. Our speakers are professionals recognized for their expertise. Most of them come from the tourism and hotel industry.

We prepare our students for a range of specialized jobs applied to the tourism and hotel sector: Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Manager, Sales Manager, Business Manager, Sales Manager, Revenue Manager or Yield Manager, Communication Manager, Digital Communication Manager, Community Manager, Social Media Manager, Public Relations Manager, Hotel Operations Manager (or tourism in communities), Product Manager, Business “. analyst “, Event manager

> Next information meeting dedicated to our training courses in tourism and culture on Wednesday, May 6 at 6:30 pm: to register, click here.

Fabien Fournillon
Pedagogical Director of the Communication, Marketing & Digital divisions of INSEEC MSc & MBA Paris

To go further: HOSPITALITY ON

Visit of the terroir : Return on the trip to Burgundy of our students in MSc2 Tourism Marketing & Hospitality Management

Updated 24 February 2022