Employment conditions in 2024 not as rosy as travel and tourism business recovery: study

• Seven per cent of study participants reported their roles being made redundant in 2024
• Fourteen per cent of all respondents reported a decline in their salary
• Fifty-nine per cent of all respondents intend to move away from their current employment in 2025

Job redundancies have increased while salary progress has slowed for personnel in travel, tourism, hospitality, and lifestyle businesses last year, found a salary and employment trend study conducted by ACI HR Solutions, a recruitment, executive search and professional training firm.

The 2025 ACI Salary & Employment Trends Report, which drew inputs from a sample of 718 travel, tourism, hospitality, and lifestyle personnel across Asia-Pacific and surrounding regions through a survey conducted in December 2024, found a seven per cent job redundancy among respondents in 2024, up from three per cent in 2023.

Fourteen per cent of respondents also reported a decline in their salary. Of those who took home a smaller pay packet in 2024, six per cent of respondents had a one to five per cent decrease, and another six per cent of respondents had six to 10 per cent taken off. A majority of 44 per cent of respondents had their salary cut by more than 10 per cent.

On the other hand, 62 per cent of respondents enjoyed a raise in 2024, down from 68 per cent in 2023. The most common wage increment ranged one to five per cent. Eighteen per cent of respondents received a six to 10 per cent hike in their salary, while only six per cent of respondents were given more than 10 per cent.

Some 57 per cent of respondents received a bonus in 2024 – down from 62 per cent seen in 2023. Most of them received a bonus worth up to two months of their monthly wages – 35 per cent received a bonus of less than a month’s salary while 38 per cent received one to two months’ of their salary.

Further analysis conducted by the 2025 ACI Salary & Employment Trends Report noted that job instability is expected to continue into 2025, as 10 per cent of hiring managers said jobs would be eliminated this year (this was six per cent in 2024) while 32 per cent said recruitment in 2025 would only be for replacements. Another 20 per cent were unsure if new hires would be brought into their company in the next 12 months.

While 38 per cent of hiring managers expected new headcounts in 2025 – down from 41 per cent in 2024, they admitted that recruitment would not be easy. Their top concerns included the lack of qualified candidates/shortage of talents; high salary, unrealistic expectations, and budget constraints; hiring quotas; language barriers; and high turnover.

To gauge sticking power among employees, the report queried respondents on their intentions to move. Forty-one per cent of respondents do not intend to change employment from their present employer and/or the industry within the next 12 months. However, slightly more – 47 per cent – have intentions to move within the industry and 12 per cent are looking for opportunities in other industries.

Among respondents with intentions to change their employers in 2025, most desire a higher salary and a different company brand/culture.

Business normalising, impacts 2023 quick hires
These findings come amid recovered international travel and tourism business in 2024, when most destinations had exceeded 2019’s international arrival numbers.

Andrew Chan, founder and CEO of ACI HR Solutions, told TTG Asia: “We have virtually recovered to pre-pandemic levels across the industry in 2024 and the tourism wheel is undoubtably spinning again with great velocity. However, from the results captured in this year’s ACI Salary & Employment Trends Report, 2024 may not have delivered the positivity we had expected, and it perhaps leaves us with more questions than answers in the coming year.”

As to why employment conditions in 2024 had not reflected the improving travel and tourism business, Chan said strong gains in 2023 had “started tapering off” in 2024.

“We’re now getting back to some form of normality,” he added.

While the study did not delve into roles that hiring managers had indicated retrenchments for, Chan saw that “new hire demands are higher for sales and operations positions”.

He added: “The uptick in redundancies could also be a spillover from when employers took the opportunity in 2023 to make quick hires to capitalise on the tourism recovery, and now we’re seeing some sort of recalibration.”

He warned that “redundancies are now very much a part of corporate and HR strategies, so each year we are going to see some form of deviation from previous year’s results”.