Next year Croatian hotels will need more than 15,000 new seasonal workers due to new investments in the tourism industry and good tourist prognosis for 2017. But it will be very difficult task for the country due to the deficit of workers and an increased emigration of people from Slavonia which is the traditional source of working staff for the auxiliary professions in tourism.
Due to the deficit problem they faced at the beginning of this season, the Association of Employers in Croatian Hospitality (UPUHH) and the Croatian Bureau of Employment (HZZ) have already started to actively work on gathering employees and on their education which may not completely solve the problem in 2017, but is as they say ''a good start and this situation should not be repeated again''.
At the end of June earlier this year the Croatian Bureau of Employment and the Croatian Chamber of Trade (HOK) signed a cooperation agreement on training for catering professions at the workplace for a specific employer. This education which emphasizes the practical skills and basic knowledge will encompass more than 1,000 unemployed people. The model has already included 240 participants.
Iva Bahunek, the director of the Association of Employers in Croatian Hospitality (UPUHH) says that data they have gathered from half of their members so far show that they will need around 7,500 seasonal workers.
''According to our polls we have estimated that Croatian hotels will need more than 15,000 workers next year. We are pleased that we have achieved a very good cooperation with our partners which is a good start to solving problems encountered by many tourist countries'', commented Bahunek.
The goal is to educate people through proven programs in the whole Croatia in order to get qualified workers for Croatian hotels by spring of 2017.