Is Thailand facing a labour shortage in the hospitality & tourism industry?

Over 3 million jobs have been lost in the hospitality & tourism sector in Thailand since the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2019.

A lot of the people who have lost their jobs have either entered into new industries, moved back with family to assist with the family business, or just decided enough is enough and started their own business. 

With demand expected to reach pre-Covid levels by 2024, we have decided to look further into whether Thailand, as so many other countries, will face a skills shortage in the hospitality & tourism industry; an industry that contributed over 20% to Thai GDP in 2019. 

How did we get here? 

In 2019, pre-Covid, hospitality & tourism contributed 21.9% to the Thai GDP, there were just shy of 40 million international visitors, and there were 6.27 million employed in the industry. Everything was great.

That all came crashing down very…