British Columbia expecting 100,000 new tourism jobs by 2020

VANCOUVER – B.C. tourism jobs are expected to explode in the coming years with about 100,000 new positions to be filled by 2020, according to a report released Monday.

VANCOUVER – B.C. tourism jobs are expected to explode in the coming years with about 100,000 new positions to be filled by 2020, according to a report released Monday.

A labour study from go2, the industryโ€™s human resource association, predicts about 44,000 jobs will be created through tourism growth over the next eight years. Another 57,000 positions are coming open due to retirements.

โ€จโ€œAfter several years of slow labour growth, the tourism industry is poised to expand,โ€ go2 CEO Arlene Keis said in a statement.

The provincial government, meanwhile, aims to expand tourism industry revenue growth by 5% annually until it hits $18 billion by 2016. The study estimates the new tourism jobs will account for 10% of the provinceโ€™s overall job growth.

โ€œOur government is committed to providing British Columbians with the skills training opportunities needed to fill the anticipated one million job openings in our province by 2020,โ€ Tourism Minister Pat Bell said in a statement.

โ€œWe are working closely with industry partners like go2 to make sure that we are focusing government investments where they will have the most impact โ€“ like training workers for careers in the tourism industry.”

The report predicts tourism will account for 300,000 jobs by 2020 โ€” an increase of 17.3% since 2010. This represents an average annual growth of 1.6% โ€” 0.2% higher than the overall provincial growth of 1.4%.

But the high demands for jobs means the province is ramping up recruitment strategies to draw in more workers. This includes career campaigns abroad and tapping under-represented talent pools such as youth, aboriginals, new immigrants, older workers and people with disabilities.

โ€จโ€œThe tourism industry often provides people with their important first job and sets them on their career path,โ€ Keis said. โ€œTourism is also the largest employer of youth, with one-in-four British Columbians under the age of 24 working in the industry.โ€

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Linda Hohnholz

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