Hospitality & Tourism
Almost 15 million Americans work in tourism and hospitality—in hotels, amusement parks, art museums, and restaurants—making it the fifth largest industry in the country.1 Many of these jobs depend on our immigration and visa systems. International tourists create high demand for the tourism industry. Meanwhile, many employers have trouble finding enough American workers to staff resorts, hotels, and attractions. Current policies not only discourage international tourists and business travelers, but also keep American businesses from finding the workers on which the tourism industry relies.
1 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “Industry employment and output projection to 2024,” Monthly Labor Review, December 2015. Available online.
Helping Immigrant Workers Helps U.S. Workers and Towns, Says Mainer
As the client services coordinator for Mano en Mano (Hand in Hand), Christina Ocampo understands that helping undocumented farmworkers and other immigrants prosper has a positive impact overall on America’s communities. Nationally, undocumented immigrants account for more than 36 percent of the agriculture workforce. And because this… Read More
Chamber Maid Part of Las Vegas’ Invisible Army of Immigrant Workers
Mexican immigrant Claudia Ramos is a member of the largely invisible army that keeps Las Vegas’ tourist economy booming. She cleans guest rooms at the Paris Casino to serve some of the nearly 43 million people who visit southern Nevada annually. People don’t realize the work that… Read More
Bangladeshi Uses an Overseas Education to Fight for Worker Rights in U.S.
Farook Hossain has a master’s degree in political science and was working as a medical clinic director in Bangladesh when he won a green card through the diversity lottery. He gave it all up to move to America, in 2001, and was soon working for $5 an hour at a… Read More
After Rising From Tragedy, an Ethiopian Entrepreneur Feeds the Economy — and Her Community
In 1995, Menbere “Menbe” Aklilu came to the United States with her 11-year-old son, moved to Oakland, California, and became a hostess at the Richmond Italian restaurant Salute e Vita. It may not sound like an auspicious beginning. But by age 10 in Gojjam, Ethiopia, Aklilu had witnessed her… Read More
Immigrants Welcomed to Community and Give Back to Community, Says Kentucky Faith Leader
The immigrant community in Henderson is small, but it is growing faster than any other group. The county’s Hispanic and Latino community, for example, increased by 0.5 percentage points between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau. That might not sound like a lot… Read More
A sudden paucity of waitstaff, hosts, and housekeepers has Maine’s hospitality industry feeling the heat this year.
It felt like a bad omen that, at the Maine Office of Tourism’s annual industry conference, a late-season snowstorm forced labor commissioner Jeanne Paquette to drop out of a discussion on the conference’s main theme, workforce development. An innocuous-sounding topic, but just the thought of “workforce development” can give innkeepers… Read More
Without Migrant Labor, a Minnesota Resort’s 460 U.S. Workers at Risk
Ben Thuringer is the managing director of Madden’s on Gull Lake, a resort founded by his grandfather in 1929 in the Brainerd Lakes Region of Central Minnesota. The family resort is a seasonal getaway, operating April through October, with more than 1,000 acres and 283 rooms. “Of the 520 people… Read More
Thanks to Migrant Workers, Minnesota’s Lake Resorts Are Open for Business
Matt Kilian is president of the chamber of commerce in Brainerd Lakes, Minnesota, a popular tourist destination known for its lakeside resorts and family getaways. “Ask anyone in the region what the quintessential vacation destination is, and it’s the Brainerd Lakes area,” he says. “I’d guess that two-thirds of all… Read More
Travel Site Founder: America Must Remain Place People ‘Aspire to Come to’
For Ahmed Bhuiyan, starting YourTripGuru, an online travel-planning site, was just the latest of his adventures since moving to the Bronx from Bangladesh at the age of 8. The startup also makes him part of a proud tradition of U.S. immigrants. In the United States, immigrants are… Read More
New Jersey Union Boss: America Doesn’t Function Without Immigrants
Walk through any Atlantic City casino and you’ll see immigrant dealers, bartenders, waiters, and more, says Bob McDevitt, president of UNITE HERE Local 54. The city’s largest union for casino workers. Local 54 has 10,000 members, two-thirds of whom are either Hispanic or Asian Americans. “If you take away immigrant… Read More
Immigrant Workers
It is hard to imagine the country’s $700 billion tourism and hospitality industry2 without the contributions of immigrants. In 2015, foreign-born workers made up more than one out of every five workers in the sector—and even larger shares of those employed in more labor-intensive roles.3 In states where tourism and hospitality is especially vital, immigrants represent a significantly larger share of the workforce than the population overall.
Sources:
2 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Table 1: Value Added by Industry,” annual estimates for 2015, accessed October 25, 2016. Available online.
3 Author’s calculations from the 2015 American Community Survey.
Table sources: Author’s calculations from the 2015 American Community Survey.
States Where Immigrants Are the Most Overrepresented in the Hospitality Workforce, 2014
The Role of Foreign-Born Workers in Selected Labor-Intensive Hospitality and Tourism Roles, 2015
More Workers Needed
As the tourism and hospitality industry expands, it will need additional workers to maintain, service, and manage venues across the country. However, between 2010 and 2020, almost 80 percent of all the projected new positions in the industry will require less than a bachelor’s degree.4 This growth is at odds with nationwide demographic trends, as the number of U.S.-born individuals at that skill level is declining.
Sources:
4 Author’s calculations of a straight-line projection using data from the Current Population Survey, 2002-2015.
5 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “Industry employment and output projection to 2024,” Monthly Labor Review, December 2015. Available online.
Table source: Burning Glass Technologies
States with the Greatest Need for Hospitality Workers, 2015
The Impact of International Visitors
While domestic travelers still account for the largest share of U.S. tourism expenditures, international tourists are critical to the strength of the industry overall. On average, international tourists spend $4,500 on goods and services each time they visit the United States—making tourism our country’s largest export in recent years.6 That spending has a ripple effect on the broader economy. The U.S. Travel Association estimates that every $1 million spent by foreign visitors creates 6.6 tourism jobs.7 Each tourism job, in turn, indirectly supports 1.5 jobs in related industries such as construction, marketing, accounting, and manufacturing.8
Sources:
6 "Statement from U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker on President Obama’s Executive Actions to Welcome More International Visitors," Commerce.gov, May 22, 2014. Available online.
7 U.S. Travel Association, “Travel Exports: Driving Economic Growth and Creating American Jobs,” September 10, 2014. Available online.
8 World Tourism Organization and International Labour Organization, “Measuring Employment in the Tourism Industries – Guide with Best Practices,” UNWTO, Madrid, 2014. Available online.
Table source: Burning Glass Technologies
The Current System Hampers International Travel
Since September 11, necessary security measures and visa restrictions have made travel more difficult for many international tourists. One way to increase the number of international travelers to the United States, while still safeguarding security, would be to expand the number of countries eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). Participating countries must meet stringent security standards for vetting potential U.S. visitors and share information about possible terrorist and criminal threats, general and specific, with the U.S. government. Research finds that when a country joins VWP, the number of visitors from that country to the United States increases substantially.
Sources:
9 New American Economy, "Passport to Future Economic Growth," December 15, 2014. Available online.
10 Ibid.
Reforming the H-2B Visa
Tourism and hospitality companies across the United States depend on immigrant workers to help fill seasonal and labor-intensive jobs that would otherwise remain vacant. In 1986, under President Ronald Reagan, the H-2B visa program was created to allow immigrants to enter the country legally as temporary workers. Unfortunately, as currently administered, the H-2B program is too cumbersome and costly—and riddled with delays—to be useful to many U.S. businesses. Many employers say the supply of available visas is also far too limited to meet actual labor needs.
Sources:
11 Estimate based on figures provided by the H-2B Workforce Coalition and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s 2015 Annual Report.
12 “Immigration Myths and Facts,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, April 14, 2016. Available online.
Impact on the States
Getting immigration reform right for the tourism and hospitality industry will be critical for many states, particularly those where the sector accounts for a substantial share of the state’s GDP. For example: in 2014, more than one out of every six dollars of GDP in Nevada was tied to the tourism and hospitality industry, as were almost one in 10 dollars of GDP in Hawaii. In Nevada, immigrants frequently hold the kinds of low-level and labor-intensive jobs that not only allow hotels and casinos to thrive, but also help create jobs for American workers at a variety of skill levels.
Table sources: Data on GDP come from the BEA’s estimates for annual GDP by state by major industry sector. Information about jobs comes from the 2014 American Community Survey.
States Most Dependent on a Strong Tourism Workforce, 2014
Top 10 Occupations Most Reliant on Immigrants in Nevada, 2014 (All Sectors)
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