By Murdo

Travelling around the Highlands and Islands in my role as Hospitality Assured ambassador enables me to take the temperature, so to speak, of the tourism industry in the region. And one of the recurring themes I hear is the perception of difficulties in recruiting staff with the right skills.

Indeed, if I had a fiver for every time I’d heard that one I would have bought my own butcher shop by now and enjoy bones being hand-delivered at three hourly intervals. Dreaming aside, it is as plain as the wet nose on my face that there’s a wealth of talented people here in the Highlands and Islands. The trick is to train ‘em and retain ‘em.

I say all this because my faith in the abilities of our tourism industry people was reinforced recently when I stopped off in Edinburgh to take in the Emerging Talent Conference, an annual bash held by the Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland (HIT Scotland). Four years ago the inaugural event awarded eight scholarships to the cream of the crop. This time the organisers handed out almost 200 scholarships – more than all the previous years put together.

Now, these scholarships are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for the very best young entrants and experienced people in the Scottish tourism industry. They are not handed out willy-nilly. If an accurate measure is needed of the state of health of the tourism industry’s workforce then this is it. And I’m happy to conclude that the prognosis is good.

The scholarships are high quality opportunities for new and not so new workers in the industry to gain experience at world-class establishments, such as the six star hotel in Dubai or the Disney Institute, and universities including Cornell in New York and Lausanne in Switzerland. As I, and others, see it, the scholarship scheme is an excellent method by which to create a pool of high quality hospitality and tourism professionals and help attract and retain the brightest and best. By the end of 2008 there will be around 400 people who have completed a scholarship and gained world-class experience.

Parallel to the mighty fine work being carried out by HIT Scotland, we as an industry have a duty – and vested interest – in promoting the Scottish tourism industry as an attractive career proposition. To appeal to the many talented people our schools and universities produce each year, the tourism industry must present a convincing case that ours is a flexible and rewarding career path. For far too long the popular conception of tourism and hospitality has been a negative one: and not on occasion without good reason.

But if we are to flourish in today’s competitive global tourism marketplace, the Scottish tourism industry must continually strive to up its game and improve. We need to offer a distinctive product that’s competitive and where customer service and quality is of world-class standard. To do any less is to sell Scotland short.

Useful links
Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland
HIT Scotland on Facebook (requires registration)