Canadian tourism is adapting to digital acceleration, climate pressures, and workforce shifts—all while maintaining the human connections that define our sector. Conversations at three recent major gatherings— the Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s Tourism Congress, the Conseil québécois des ressources humaines en tourisme’s 30th “Sommet RH”, and the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario’s Ontario Tourism Summit—revealed both ongoing challenges and potential pathways forward.
What We Heard
Four key attraction and retention themes emerged consistently across the Canadian, Quebec, and Ontario tourism industry events.
- If passion is an essential driver, expertise matters. Workers who understand the “why” behind their roles deliver better service and stay longer.
- Managing expectations prevents turnover. Clear communication about roles, schedules, and growth opportunities from day one reduces friction and improves retention.
- Purpose drives performance. Employees who connect their work to broader goals—showcasing local culture, supporting sustainable tourism—show higher job satisfaction.
- Technology will always need human oversight. As AI use becomes standard, management and leadership must ensure guidelines and policies are in place to support responsible and meaningful adoption of AI, where it augments and supports work rather than replaces human judgment and empathy.
Three Forces Reshaping the Workforce
Panellists and participants identified three interconnected pressure points.
Digital transformation is creating gaps between worker adoption and organizational readiness. Many frontline staff use AI tools faster than their employers can provide training or governance frameworks, creating risks around data security and quality control. Among discussed solutions, building digital literacy and fluency at all levels will be critical as a core competency, but so will enhancing social abilities and skills such as critical thinking and problem solving.
Climate disruption is no longer hypothetical. Wildfires, floods, and extreme weather are testing operational resilience in real time and are impacting day-to-day activities. Emergency preparedness must move from optional to standard, including training covering prevention, early warning systems, and checklists for business continuity.
Demographic structural and context-sensitive shifts are changing who enters the tourism sector and why. Beyond youth and newcomers, untapped and diverse talents represent significant talent pools, but they all need clear pathways. Co-op programs, work-integrated learning, and visible career progression remain key to position tourism as a long-term career choice.
AI: A Common Theme Across All Three Events
AI dominated conversations, both on and off stage. The technology is already embedded in tourism—demand forecasting, service personalization, and task automation. The question for tourism operators isn’t whether to adopt AI tools, but how to do so responsibly. This means building digital literacy across all levels and creating governance frameworks that protect privacy and service quality.
Translating Insights into Action
Building on what tourism stakeholders discussed and the organization’s upcoming activities, Tourism HR Canada will focus on the following priorities:
- Applied research mapping on how technology and AI change job tasks and skills across occupations and industry groups, leading to a comprehensive revision of the tourism competency framework.
- Scaling work-integrated learning through the Propel Student Work Placement Program and expanding partnerships and alignment between industry and the education system.
- Piloting training programs to test technological capacity and sustainability to offer accessible and modular training, including resilience, crisis management, and climate adaptation.
- Enhancing Discover Tourism content to highlight and spread HR and employer best practices, including initiatives to support adaptive management and local talent integration.
Looking Ahead
Tourism drives economic activity and community wellbeing, fostering pride of place and showcasing Canadian culture. By investing in research, skills development, resilience building, and employer support, we can collectively build a workforce that’s both adaptable and rooted in the human values that define Canadian hospitality.
The path forward requires collaboration across employers, educators, government, and workers. Tourism HR Canada stands ready to facilitate that collaboration and grow a skilled, diverse, inclusive, and resilient workforce.
This article was co-written with the support of M365 Copilot and Claude.