A problem in developing new tourism markets remains how to resource them from an existing employment base. Key questions arising are: Do current tourism enterprises have the existing skills to move into these new markets for sustainable tourism? How will tourism keep itself and its goals competitive and sustainable from a skills perspective? What skills are needed now and in the future?

This paper will look at the tourism industry’s skills requirements and will discuss how the Australian national vocational education and training (VET) system provides a model that can lead to meeting these skills demands through industry involvement in training and educational programs. It will examine the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders and in particular those of industry. Whilst the main focus of this paper will be on Australia, there are clearly issues described that apply to all countries seeking to sustain or grow their tourism markets and perhaps some lessons to be learned from the Australian situation.

Information for this paper was sourced from a range of research papers and reports, mostly commissioned by the Australian Government, and from the writer’s own professional knowledge and experience of the current training system.