Employee Empowerment and Tourism Sector Employment Around the World

Abstract

We utilize data from the World Tourism Organization (WTO) to explore the impact of employee empowerment on employment within the tourism sector across eighty-four countries from 2000 to 2021. We assess the level of employee empowerment through the provision of training programs by firms operating in the economy. To account for the influence of economic conditions, infrastructure development, and policy frameworks, we control for several economic, social, and institutional factors. Our findings demonstrate a significant positive association between employee training and employment in the tourism sector. These results withstand various sensitivity tests and endogeneity analysis, indicating their robustness. However, our analysis suggests that changes in employee training may not produce an immediate or exclusively linear effect on tourism sector employment. Possible delays in the impact of training programs on employment, as well as nonlinear effects, are observed. Moreover, the relationship between employee training and tourism sector employment can be influenced by diverse environmental, social, economic, and geopolitical factors.

Keywords: Employee empowerment; training programs; tourism sector; employment; global

JEL Classification: L8; M53; E24