The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) is to team up with the World Tourism Forum Lucerne in an initiative to tackle the war for talents in the travel industry.
The World Tourism Forum is to embark on two major research studies amongst university level students analyzing expectations and beliefs around how the travel industry will attract, recruit and retain the travel professionals of tomorrow. The two pieces of research will dovetail into the two ACTE initiatives announced last autumn in Berlin – “Around The World in 80 Hours» and the «3 under 33» campaigns.

The results of the research will be used by both organisations, through a joint initiative, to create a practical programme to address the issues and challenges raised.

The first piece of research will be undertaken by the World Tourism Forum in conjunction with Korn/Ferry International, the world’s largest recruiting firm, and will focus on talent management in tourism, travel and hospitality companies. The findings will be presented at the World Tourism Forum Lucerne (13-15th April 2011). Simultaneously, the World Tourism Forum is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers to analyze retention strategies and student expectations on reward and commitment from tourism, travel and hospitality companies. The results will also be unveiled at the World Tourism Forum Lucerne in April.

Professor Martin Barth, General Manager World Tourism Forum Lucerne commented the joint initiative as follows: “As world economies emerge from the current recessions we know that industry will face a different landscape and perhaps the most dramatic changes will be seen in the world of recruitment and retention of human resource. A new war for talent will commence and expectations of employees may well be different from the past. The purpose of the research is to highlight the challenges, find solutions and then, with our partners, ACTE, help the travel industry meet those challenges head on”.

Ron DiLeo, Executive Director, ACTE added: “ACTE has identified that the area of recruitment and staff retention into the business travel sector is perhaps the single biggest challenge our sector faces. Our «3 under 33» initiative is specifically designed to recognise the talent emerging and to harness it for the good of the sector. While the «Around The World in 80 Hours» project is our strategy to work in unison with the top educational establishments around the globe to enhance the recruitment process in the business travel sector. We are delighted to be working with the World Tourism Forum and I look forward to seeing the results of the research in the spring”.

ACTE Chairman, Chris Crowley added: “ACTE is keen to work with like minded organisations in meeting the very real challenges facing the business travel field. In cooperation with World Tourism Forum Lucerne we believe we can add real value and provide practical solutions to the challenges facing the sector”.