Hospitality experts at the 2023 Hospitality Business Summit have stated that the rate of employee turnover was really high, posing a major challenge in the industry.
With employees always leaving for much better offers without recourse, the experts, ranging from travel and tourists managers, restaurateurs, hoteliers, and others, stated that a better platform for talent acquisition, maintenance, and exit would help better the industry.
To handle this challenge, the summit organisers, Vertaline Synergy, on Saturday, unveiled what it termed a ‘tier-one recruitment platform’ for the hospitality industry.
The event, which was tagged, “Making Hospitality Great Again,” was held from Thursday 13 to Friday 14, July 2023.
In his keynote address, the Chief Executive Officer, Landmark Africa Group, Mr Paul Onwuanibe, stated that over 350 million persons in the world worked in the hospitality sector, contributing over three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to the Nigerian economy.
He also noted that, for the industry to thrive, it needed a secure environment, a free-flowing economy, and a stable government.
Onwuanibe said, “People invest in a place where they feel safe. The sector has to be seamless. We’re at that stage in Nigeria where we have to make the industry really vibrant. The industry employs one in ten people on planet Earth.”
He also added that a country can come from nothing to something in a few years with resilience, patience and good policies.
“There are a lot of issues with finance. Although one does not need too much money to start, money is needed to grow.
“Finance security and also infrastructure are also big issues. If you don’t do it now, you won’t be able to do it when you need it. We need sociopolitical stability, power, water, rail, road, internet and telecommunications,” he added.
In attendance was Nigeria’s former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite; former Chair, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Biodun Olujimi, amongst others.
