BUSINESS

from The Mesa Tribune - Zone 1 - 06.20.2021

by Times Media Group

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As guests return, resorts hunt for workers

BY KRISTINE CANNON

Tribune Staff Writer

As COVID-19 mandates lift, Valley resorts are gradually seeing occupancy rates go up week-overweek.

But while their restaurants and pools are hosting crowds not seen since prepandemic times, resorts are facing quite the opposite situation behind the scenes: a shortage of staff.

On Wednesday, June 23, the Arizona Of�ice of Tourism is partnering with career development organizations Pipeline AZ and ARIZONA@WORK to launch a new initiative connecting job-seekers with thousands of career opportunities available right now across Arizona’s tourism and hospitality industry.

The partnership will kick off with an Arizona Tourism Virtual Hiring Event on Wednesday, June 23. Job seekers can get information on hiring, bene�its packages and potential hiring bonuses from participating employers including Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Xanterra and the Salt River Indian Community’s Talking Stick Entertainment District.

“The great news is that people are coming to enjoy all the great attractions in the Talking Stick Entertainment District,” said Blessing McAnlis-Vasquez from the Salt River Indian Community. “Fortunately, increased visitors also create more jobs, so participating in this event is a perfect way to help promote our positions available now.”

Added Debbie Johnson, director of the Arizona Of�ice of Tourism: “It’s clear that strong demand has returned for Arizona vacations. Currently, many of our hotels and resorts aren’t able to �ill to capacity because of staf�ing challenges. Our new tourism and hospitality workforce development efforts are designed to �ill that gap.”

Employers can register to be matched with eligible candidates and job seekers can register to participate in the June 23 event at AZTourismJobs.com. The site also provides a wide variety of resources all in one place such as connecting people to open jobs, skills assessments, help with resumes and interviews.

Mary Foote, director of Pipeline AZ, an initiative of the Partnership for Economic Innovation, said, “Creating a job seeker pro�ile and registering for the upcoming virtual hiring event is a great way to learn more about possible tourism and hospitality career paths.”

Thousands of jobs are available right now, from management and sales positions to concierge, valet, front-desk managers, housekeeping, maintenance and food prep positions. Pipeline AZ connects the entire workforce ecosystem, serving the needs of hospitality and tourism businesses, job seekers, educators and workforce organizations simultaneously through its platform.

“As one of the hardest-hit during the pandemic, Arizona’s tourism and hospitality industry continues to work toward recovery, with rehiring workers being a top priority,” Johnson added.

Shane Sarlo, Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa Resort manager, said getting furlough employees back on the job has been a challenge.

Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa has managed to bounce back to over 90 percent of their pre-COVID sta ng levels. (Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa)

At one point, Sarlo said, Sanctuary went from more than 400 employees to fewer than 30.

According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, Arizona hotels shed more than 25 percent of their employees last year, with job losses across local hotels totaling more than 15,000.

By the end of this year, however, AHLA estimates that the total number of hotel employees will rise a few thousand, from 43,445 people in 2020 to 46,037 – well below the 2019 total of almost 59,000 workers.

AHLA said Arizona’s 2021 projected losses in hotel workers, compared to 2019, will be the 13th highest in the nation. “Hotels were one of the �irst industries affected by the pandemic after travel was forced to a virtual halt in early 2020, and it will be one of the last to recover,” AHLA’s report states.

Overall, AHLA predicts that hotels will add 200,000 direct hotel operations jobs in 2021 but will remain nearly 500,000 jobs below the industry’s pre-pandemic employment level of 2.3 million employees.

Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale held a hiring event in May to �ill more than 120 positions. The resort had furloughed 312 employees last year.

Overall, Great Wolf Lodge hopes to rehire 2,000 new employees across its 16 U.S.-based resorts.

“We recognize the pandemic has created a number of employment challenges nationwide,” said Bryan Robinson, Chief People Of�icer for Great Wolf Resorts.

To get prospective employees through the door, some resorts are offering incentives.

The Phoenician, for example, held a hiring event last month and offered a $500 sign-on bonus to full- and part-time new hires.

Phoenician Managing Director Mark Vinciguerra believes it impacted the turnout. “I de�initely feel that it has an impact,” Vinciguerra said. “It speaks to the investment that we’re making, that they know that we want them to be here. We’re willing to invest the time and energy to get them trained properly.”

The Phoenician had about 60 position open at the start of the hiring event, ranging from grounds and landscaping positions to culinary, housekeeping, spa positions and more.

According to Vinciguerra, the hiring event was successful. They �illed about half of the full-time, part-time and seasonal positions they were hiring for.

Sanctuary is back to more than 90 percent of its pre-COVID staf�ing levels – “which is not typical of what is being seen in the industry, overall,” Sarlo said.

While the industry expects to gain jobs this year, it won’t reach pre-pandemic levels until 2023, AHLA believes.

Sanctuary was initially challenged with �inding line-level staff, like housekeeping and stewarding, but then reevaluated their starting pay rates in an effort to entice staff back to work.

“We also improved some of our additional bene�its, including complimentary employee meals, incentives, bonuses, and more,” Sarlo said.

Phoenician managers attribute part of the dif�iculty of rehiring to former employees moving out of state or starting entirely different careers.

This has led the resort to shift its focus on hiring new people.

“We believe it’ll come back in stages,” Vinciguerra said. “We have seen so much leisure travel these �irst four or �ive months of the year.

“We think the next big segment that’s going to come back – and it’s probably sometime in the fall – is group business,” Vinciguerra continued, adding that group business comprises at least half of the Phoenician’s business.

Vinciguerra said fall is critical to hotel industry recovery.

“If [group] business returns, then that would be a very good signal that we’re on our way to recovery,” he said.

But as the industry recovers, Sarlo believes that hotels and resorts will need to adjust their internal culture to provide more workforce values.

“Gone are the days when managers were expected to work a minimum of 55 hours a week. Today’s hospitality emThe Phoenician is among Scottsdale resorts currently still hiring across all departments.