5 Essential Soft Skills for Careers in Hospitality and Tourism

Are you a compassionate problem-solver with strong time-management skills and a cool head under pressure? If so, you should probably consider a career in hospitality and tourism. As more hospitality and tourism businesses recognise the importance of "soft skills", your qualities may become highly sought-after in the industry in the coming years.

Often, if hospitality and tourism recruiters believe an inexperienced candidate has the right personality and soft skills for the job, they'll invest in training them. Think you've already got what it takes? Read on to learn five essential soft skills for careers in hospitality and tourism.

1. Empathy and emotional intelligence It goes without saying that digital transformation carries the future of hospitality and tourism, but that doesn't mean the industry will become impersonal. On the contrary, investing in human capital is key to finding innovative solutions in a constantly changing environment. People determine an organisation's success, and if that's true across the board, it's even more so for service-based industries like hospitality and tourism.

2. Teamwork Among the specific qualifications required by many host companies and organisations, the ability to fit into an existing team is often considered crucial in selecting candidates. To meet this need, IULM's Internship and Placement Office offers consulting services designed to support and prepare students for interviews and to ensure proper guidance during the internship. "We help students improve their personal skills," explains Cristina Sottotetti, director of IULM's Internship and Placement Office, "which is a […] necessary condition for career success."

3. Stress and time management Hospitality managers often juggle several things at once, handling heavy workloads at a fast pace. When you're asked to do several things at once in a short time and are forced to deal with sudden problems, it's easy to let your emotions slip… For a career in hospitality and tourism, if you want greater efficiency and customer satisfaction, you need to be ready to multitask and stay calm and composed!

4. Problem-solving Whether you're dealing with difficult customers or facing internal issues, the ability to think independently and propose workable solutions is one of the most valued soft skills in hospitality and tourism careers — and certainly a decisive factor in professional success. Whatever your speciality, you'll need to learn how to manage crises, from spotting the problem to evaluating how well you handled it and what can be improved in the future.

5. Strategy and innovation HR managers in hospitality and tourism tend to favour candidates who are allergic to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra and who go out of their way to innovate. "At Starwood [Hotels and Resorts]," explains Arianna Agresti, Starwood's regional HR head for Milan, "we look for talent with strong teamwork skills, something we measure every year through our engagement survey." She adds: "Among strategy and innovation skills, we mention an 'across the boundaries' attitude: always looking for new opportunities and solutions, even when there are established procedures."