5 Reasons Bahrainis Don’t Like Hotel Jobs

I made small research and interviews on the reason why most Bahrainis are not interested in hotel jobs. I found at least two factors; socio-culture and socio-economy and here I will share with you why they don't want to take up jobs in hospitality industry from social perspective. Next post, we will discuss factors from social economy perspective. Enjoy…

Religion is the main factor influences Bahrainis in making decision to choose type of job. Since Bahrainis are doctrinised by Islam values, most parents do not suggest their children to work in hotel. They do not prefer their generation to be involved in travel related projects, because based on their thought that, the participation in hotel and hospitality industry, means against values in their religion. The rest of considerations have lots of to do with the way of life.

Culture is the similar, where it is one of the reasons for Bahrainis to avoid hotel job. As one of GCC countries, where Arab tradition and customs are dominant, majority of Bahraini simply think that tourism and hospitality industry is a kind of modernisation brought by the west. Tourism comes as a new phenomenon that contains several modern values and is associated to be contradictive over Arab conservative tradition. Those conservative families will definitely suggest their generation to elude working in hotel industry.

Education, skills and competencies are some of major reasons. The current Bahraini’s education system does not focus on providing suitable skills relevant to the job market. The government of Bahrain acknowledge the fact that there is an actual gap between the educational system output and the jobs available. For example, students, as a trend, are showing interest in oil company job, banking or IT, when there is a severe dearth for hotel professionals. This means that the large number of graduate students do not have jobs available when they are graduated.

The ministry of labour data shows that 69 percent of job seekers are secondary graduates or high school dropouts. They do not possess the skill and knowledge required to compete in the job market. In fact, they do not even meet the basic essential work skills. To be an hotelier, an employee must have basic skills and knowledge on hotel operations and management.

Attitude is one of the main reasons why are Bahrainis not employed in lodging industry. The basic requirement to work in the industry is the attitude of “pride to serve”. Tourism or hotel job is service industry where the backbone, as well as nature of the job is “to serve somebody else”. Only a worker who has proper attitude to serve people, will adapt to the job and can maintain longer employment. Moreover, the existing employment system does not encourage Bahrainis commitment to their jobs. They don’t simply commit to the job.

Work ethic is considerably related to the eagerness and level of enthusiasm. Are Bahrainis lazy? Bahrain’s Minister of Labour, Dr. Majeed al-Alawi, described Bahraini and most GCC nationals as “lazy” and “spoilt”, relying on imported labour for the simplest tasks.

Despite Bahrain government schemes to reduce expatriate and get more locals into work, the hard truth is that too many Bahrainis don’t want real job. “The simple truth is there are no t enough Bahraini nationals looking for work who have the quota expectations of the government”. Compared with expatriates, most locals will not work long hours, then it causes many employers have to hire at least two Bahrainis to replace each expatriate.

Anyone can add other reasons?