A third of job losses in Asia linked to tourism - ILO

Nearly a third of total job losses in five Asian countries were linked to tourism, with an estimated 1.6 million jobs lost, according to the International Labour Organization.

Evidence from Brunei, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam showed that job losses in tourism-related sectors in 2020 were four times greater than in non-tourism industries, the United Nations labour agency said on Thursday. 

“Even with countries in the region focusing heavily on vaccinations and designing strategies to slowly re-open borders, jobs and working hours in the tourism-related sector are likely to remain below their pre-crisis numbers in Asia–Pacific countries into next year,” said Chihoko Asada-Miyakawa, ILO assistant director general and regional director for Asia and the Pacific.

More on the Covid-19 impact in five countries’ tourism employment: 

In Brunei, the tourism sector was hard hit, with employment and average working hours contracted by about 40% and 21% respectively. It was the country that saw the largest difference between employment losses in tourism and non-tourism related sectors.

In Mongolia, tourism employment and average working hours contracted by about 17% and 13% respectively.

In the Philippines, employment in the sector contracted by 28%, compared to an 8% loss in non-tourism related sectors. Workers in the tourism-related sector working zero hours per week rose two thousand-fold.

In Thailand, average wages in the tourism sector decreased by 9.5% as workers moved into lower-paid jobs, while average working hours declined by 10%. In the first quarter of 2021, employment was below pre-Covid numbers in all tourism-related sub-sectors except for food and beverage serving activities.

In Vietnam, average tourism wages fell by nearly 18%, with the decline for women employees even higher at almost 23%.