The Digital Skills Gap – Is it Time to Rethink the Needs of Tourism and Hospitality Organizations in the UK?

ABSTRACT

This research investigates digital skill gaps and digital training provision amongst tourism and hospitality organizations in the four nations of the United Kingdom. The results derived from an online survey show that organizations mostly lack skills in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics and highlight that key skills gaps relate to social media, online marketing, and communication skills. The skills gaps are considered in the context of specific policies of the four nations together with education barriers and other societal constraints. This is supplemented by a discussion of industry training provision, compounded by issues of time within the management of the business, budget controls and lack of knowledge and resources. These findings add to the growing body of literature on the complexity of skills provision in the tourism and hospitality sector. From a practical perspective, this study helps to identify the key areas for skills development and barriers.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital skills
• skills gaps
• training needs
• digital training provision

Introduction

As technology increasingly impacts everyday life, the tourism and hospitality industries are adopting digital technologies to meet travelers’ expectations (Mintel, 2018; World Economic Forum [WEF], 2018). Mintel (2018) identifies artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), and robotics as some of the most influential technologies in tourism. By 2030, Statista (2022) projects that mobile applications, AI, cloud computing, automation tools, and self-service will be increasingly used by the tourism, hospitality, and airline industries. However, skills gaps in local labor markets (89%) and a shortage of capital investments (39%) are cited as significant obstacles to the adoption of technologies worldwide (WEF, 2018).

The level of digitalization in a country is influenced by internet infrastructure, regulation and policies, and the use of digital solutions by businesses and individuals, according to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD, 2021). While 96% of enterprises have access to the Internet (Eurostat, 2021), rural areas in the UK have poorer and less reliable broadband infrastructure (DEFRA Committee, 2017). Moreover, 44% of small business owners do not consider digital technology essential to their business (Lloyds Bank, 2019). Given that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are prevalent in tourism and hospitality businesses, and they are significant in rural areas (DEFRA, 2021), this digital hesitance is concerning and potentially puts SMEs at a disadvantage. Academic studies in tourism and hospitality highlight the potential for technology to simulate and enhance tourism experiences (Errichiello et al., 2019; Tham et al., 2021), and Mintel (2022) reports that subtle technologies can improve travelers’ experiences.

This paper has a two-fold aim: to report on pre-pandemic (2019) and future skills needed in tourism and hospitality up to 2030, and to assess whether current educational and training provisions can meet the demands of digitalization. This research is part of the European Commission funded Next Tourism Generation (NTG) Alliance project, designed to address digital and sustainability skills gaps in tourism and hospitality businesses in Europe via transformational collaboration between industry, education, social partners and government.

Carlisle et al. (2021) and Zaragoza-Sáez et al. (2022) recognize the essential need for future digital skills across the EU. However, Carlisle et al. (2021) suggest that such needs differ depending on the country of origin of the respondents. Thus, this paper will first discuss digital skills policy, digital training, digital skills gaps, issues and challenges within the four nations of the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) and present primary research results and analysis on digital skills gaps in five tourism and hospitality sectors.

Literature Review

Conceptualizing Digital Skills

Many concepts relate to what constitutes digital skills, without a clear consensus on definition or classification. Nonetheless, van Laar et al. (2017) discuss the distinction between the concept of digital literacy and technical skills, where the latter relates to the ability to use the technology and the former concerns mastering information processing with the use of digital technologies. Likewise, Adeyinka-Ojo et al. (2020) make a distinction between skills related to the use of specific technologies, i.e., “digital literacy and technologies”, and more transferable skills not linked to any specific technologies, which the authors referred to as “industry practitioner and employability skills. These can be both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ skills. The former includes, amongst others, communication, lifelong learning, problem solving, critical thinking, etc. These are reminiscent of Ferrari’s et al. (2013) list of digital competencies, which include, amongst others, information management, communication and sharing, and technical operations. The ”hard’ skills, however, include technical, operational, strategic and basic work skills. van Deursen and van Dijk (2010) relate these to internet skills, where a clear distinction is made between task-oriented skills, such as opening the internet browser, executing searches, navigating websites and information processing skills such as defining search options, evaluating information, and taking correct actions to reach goals. Further, Sousa and Rocha (2019) consider that different technologies require different skill sets. They note that different skills will be present depending whether one deals with internal (e.g., analytics, search engine optimization, competitive intelligence, and social media (SM) monitoring) or external IT technologies (e.g. website, adverts, landing pages, e-mail campaigns), or indeed any other technologies such as Cloud storage, big data analytics, mobile, AI or robotics.

Societal Digital Divide

van Deursen and van Dijk (2010) point to the “digital divide” where digital skills are not equally distributed amongst society. Thus, access to the Internet alone cannot be seen as a precursor to having good or any digital skills. For example, 16% of the UK population were reported to be unable to undertake any digital activities without the help of others, with 7% living off-line due to the lack of appropriate skills (Lloyds Bank, 2020). The same report concludes that consequently, 22% of the UK population live without the basic skills needed in every day life due to digitalization. Further, the proportion of people with low digital skills rises sharply when employment and socio-economic status are taken into consideration, with studies (e.g., Gui, 2007; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2008) pointing to the digital gaps that depend on the economic and educational circumstances and, geographical locations of people.

van Dijk (2005) and Saikkonen and Kaarakainen (2021) point out that unequal opportunities often result in an uneven distribution of resources and lead to differing access to digital technology, thus variable participation in society. Therefore, social disadvantages can lead to a lack of digital engagement, via fewer employment and networking opportunities (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport [DDCMS], 2019). This digital exclusion is still most prominent in the areas that are socially excluded, rural and/or economically challenged, i.e., areas which have a high reliance on tourism employment (DEFRA, 2021). This can be further illustrated by skills shortages for vacancies when compared with Wales and England. Basic computer literacy skills and advanced IT or software skills were lacking in 69% of tourism and 67% of hospitality Welsh businesses, yet in England, these were reported to be 15% and 16% respectively (GSR, 2011, 2015). This is concerning, particularly since the competitiveness of the tourism and hospitality industry is now largely driven using digital information technologies (Adeyinka-Ojo et al., 2020; Salvioni, 2016; Shariman et al., 2012) with tourism management becoming devoted to information technology (Carlisle et al., 2021), leading to changes in ways businesses operate (Ali & Frew, 2014).

Additional consideration needs to be given to location-specific needs and gaps. Autor (2015) notes that skills and levels of digitalization will vary from sector to sector, and these skills and levels of digitalization are in constant development and change as directed by the needs of the sector and its customers. For instance, some of the problems identified as contributing to the inability of small and rural tourism businesses in Wales to meet tourist expectations have a long history, including lack of qualifications, training, and high labor turnover (Haven-Tang & Jones, 2008) which continue to be relevant today. Additionally, urban and suburban populations areas tend to have better digital skills levels when compared to the population from rural areas (Phillip et al., 2017). This lack of skills found in rural and remote areas has a significant effect upon the populations’ willingness to engage with digital solutions, even if access to the internet exists. As Pavez et al. (2017) note that people located in rural areas who lack basic digital skills, will feel unable or overwhelmed to learn them. van Laar et al. (2020) underline that lack of a digital skill rarely occurs in isolation, and individuals are likely to lack others.

Workplace Issues

An estimated 52% of the UK population lacks digital skills (Winterbotham et al., 2019). Microsoft (2021) reported this skills gap to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and estimate digital skills gap levels of 69% despite the increased dependency on technology for collaboration and organizational development. Furthermore, Winterbotham et al. (2019) note that 30% of job vacancies are classified as “hard to fill” due to the applicants lacking the necessary digital skills. For instance, pre-pandemic 75% of job adverts in Scotland and 82% in Northern Ireland require baseline digital skills for “low-skilled” jobs (DDCMS, 2019). The lack of “people and soft skills” was attributed to missing underlying digital skills in two-fifths of the identified gaps. Further, the Industrial Strategy Council (2019) note that by 2030, 5 million workers are likely to be “acutely under-skilled” in basic digital skills, and two-thirds of the workforce could face some level of digital under-skilling. This is a particular concern as the pace of digitalization and adaptation of technologies is fast-moving, with 9 in 10 jobs of the future requiring digital skills (World Economic Forum, 2020), and is therefore unlikely to be matched by the skills available in the job market. Thus, this paper aims to identify these key skills that should be addressed via compulsory and job-related training.

For businesses, this shortage of skills is reflected in the lack of use of digital technologies by SMEs. For instance, a third of SMEs did not have a website in 2013 (Welsh Government, 2013) and 2% operated entirely offline (Lloyds Bank, 2019). A further 33% did not engage with any SM (Business Wales, 2017), and only 34% were actively using SM for marketing purposes (Lloyds Bank, 2019). This is worrying for the UK, with 99% of tourism-related businesses classed as SMEs (House of Commons, 2018). As Oggero et al. (2019) highlight SMEs, in general, are slower in the adoption of digital technologies, putting them at a greater disadvantage to larger companies from the outset. Yet paradoxically, investment in those technologies can help to grow SMEs as businesses (Olsson & Bernhard, 2021).

On average the hospitality and tourism sector in the UK reports “essential” skills to be missing in 21% of businesses, compared with 15% average across other industries (People 1st, 2013). Hotels, restaurants, and pubs are reported to have the highest overall skills gap amongst the industry, with 21% of the gaps resulting from a lack of digital skills (Winterbotham et al., 2019). This is sharply contrasted by only 23% of employees receiving digital training at their workplace, with only 10% of those who had received training, reporting actual skills improvement (Lloyds Bank, 2020). Microsoft (2021) recognizes cost and lack of skills strategy as the main barriers to digital skills training. This is likely to be compounded by sector-specific issues related to the training and development of staff. For instance, the hospitality industry has historically been characterized by a high proportion of “on the job” training (Sigala et al., 2001), compounded by a growing gap in the abilities to train and/or upskill others in the workplace (Industrial Strategy Council, 2019). Equally, the recruitment criteria may omit digital proficiency by focusing on the soft skills aspects of the job, thus the resulting gaps in skills are unlikely to be plugged by new recruits. As Erdogan et al. (2011) point out higher attainment of digital skills leads to higher productivity and efficiency in an employee yet can lead to them being perceived as overqualified. Thus, as Carlisle et al. (2021) point out, a lack of skills will inevitably lead to lower productivity in a sector that historically struggled with productivity levels (People 1st, 2015).

Policy and Education Barriers

There is a growing body of knowledge that reviews the concept of digital skills and the consequence of poor digital literacy amongst societies. For instance, people who are deemed to be “digital natives” do not necessarily possess digital skills, and many become digitally proficient without proper educational support (Claro et al., 2018; Eynon, 2010). At the same time, Saikkonen and Kaarakainen (2021) point out a correlation between increased digital usage experience and the experience gained in the levels of digital skills one person can attain. They further highlight that a second denominator of the level of digital skills seems to be linked with age, with older workers typically having fewer digital skills. Thus, Sigala (2021) highlights how hospitality and tourism education need to adapt in line with the various needs of the students. Buhalis and Law (2008) in their review of progress in information technology and tourism management note that technological progress and tourism have been going hand in hand for years. Thus, a focus on skills development should in this sense move away from internet skills and in particular task-oriented skills, such as opening the browser or navigating websites (van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010), toward using data from online booking sites and SM to improve products and services (Joosten, 2017). Making the presence of the “right” digital skills of utmost concern for tourism-related organizations (Carlisle et al., 2021). Further, Yu et al. (2017) point out that in areas where a large digital skills divide exists, education must focus on skills related to “information and strategic skills” in opposition to “operational” ones.

In 2017 the UK Government expressed its commitment to digital skills education via Digital Strategy, in which it has pledged “new Technical Education” with skills necessary for “the modern economy”. This has been reported to have been partially fulfilled by spending £9.5 million on training 800,000 people within “Future Digital Inclusion and Widening Digital Participation Programmes” (DDCMS, 2017). Further, in response to the digital skills gap, the UK Government outlined the Essential Digital Skills Framework (Department for Education [DfE], 2019), where they listed various digital skills which each citizen should possess. The Government’s commitment to digital skills provision, therefore, is high. However, WorldSkills UK (2021) highlights large disparities between what is currently being offered in terms of training and education of digital skills and employers’ needs, hence this study continues to be relevant beyond 2019 survey data. Further, Microsoft (2021) underlines businesses’ low confidence in the UK digital education with only 28% of employers believing the system offers adequate digital training; with only 24% confident that the UK government is doing enough to tackle the UK’s digital skills gap. Moreover, despite the increased funding, the WorldSkills UK (2021) shows that the number of training opportunities instead of rising is falling.

The UK £2.5 billion Skills Fund ([DfE], 2021), designed to boost skills is unlikely to provide much influence in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland as the digital “skills boot camps” set up by the fund are all located in England. This will see an unlikely uptake of a good proportion of the UK’s rural, unemployed adults aged 19 or over for a course lasting 12 to 16 weeks, due to access logistics and cost. There are some attempts by the local governments to address the digital gap, e.g., the Welsh Digital Competence Framework (2016) aimed to re-design the 2021 school curriculum to support greater digital literacy and skill but does not address adult training, thus not solving the current digital skills gap within the workplace. This is further compounded by a 48% decrease in adult learning participation in the UK between 2006 and 2017 (Dumicic et al., 2019). The DfE (2021), points out the available “boot camps” are employer co-designed and led, which should address the industry needs. Yet, the tourism and hospitality industry’s voice is unlikely to be represented due to the fragmented nature of the industry and lack of uniform representation.

Methodology

This study forms part of a KA 2 Erasmus + Program Funded project designed to develop an effective response to green, digital, and social skills gaps in the tourism and hospitality industry. Building upon previous research by Carlisle et al. (2021), this paper examines the digital skills gaps in five tourism and hospitality sectors in the UK: Food and Beverage; accommodation; travel agents and tour operators, visitor attractions, destination management.

Academics continue to highlight the suitability of quantitative research instruments for investigating both attitudes and actions in tourism research (e.g. Denscombe, 2021). A quantitative questionnaire was developed by both academic and industry experts via the NTG Consortia of 6 tourism universities and 7 tourism and hospitality trade associations and consisted of 25 questions in total, containing a mixture of closed, open, multiple choice and Likert scale questions. The focus of this examination is digital skills gaps in the UK; for a similar study with the Spanish NTG Survey results, see Zaragoza-Sáez et al. (2022). A survey was developed via Qualtrics between January and March 2019 and distributed to the four nations of the UK via national, regional, and local tourism networks that were available to Cardiff Metropolitan University and People 1^st International, a skills-based training organization, the two primary NTG partners in the UK. Senior managers, business owners and executives and destination managers who have the responsibility of supporting training for their employees were contacted via tourism and hospitality associations and industry networks together with telephone and follow-up e-mails where necessary to encourage participation. Research participation was voluntary, and no personal data was collected from participants.

Respondents were required to have the responsibility and management of employees within the tourism and hospitality sectors. As evident from Table 1, five sectors were investigated: Accommodation, F&B, Tour Operators, Visitor Attractions and Destination Management Organizations (DMOs). The size of organizations was established at the beginning of the survey according to how many employees worked at the organization. The following European Commission categorization was utilized: Micro: 1–9 employees, Small: 10–49 employees, Medium: 50–249 employees and Large 250+ employees. The final sample included 233 (n = 233) tourism and hospitality companies and DMOs across the UK. However, response rates varied among the nations, with the highest number of responses evident from Wales (n = 142) in contrast to Scotland (n = 8). The questionnaire questions were passed through the Cardiff Metropolitan University Ethics committee as appropriate for the objectives of the skills gaps research and derived from comprehensive secondary data analysis including prior academic research, national government skills policy documents and European reports on skills gaps and digital skills topics in Digi Comp 2.0.

Table 1. Distribution of survey responses in the UK.

Characteristics	England	Northern Ireland	Scotland	Wales	Total (n)	Cumulative Percentage
Sector:
Destination Management	4	4	1	17	26	11%
Food & Beverage	26	5	3	13	47	20%
Visitor Attractions	4	5	0	36	45	19%
Travel agents and Tour Operators	5	1	0	23	29	13%
Accommodation	25	4	4	53	86	37%
Size:
Large (250 or more employees)	18	5	4	10	37	16%
Medium (100–249 employees)	12	1	1	12	26	11%
Small (10–99 employees)	20	8	2	25	55	23%
Micro (Less than 10 employees)	11	3	1	68	83	36%
Individual or Part Time Activity	3	2	0	27	32	14%
Role:
Operational Staff	3	2	1	17	23	10%
Supervisor	3	0	0	3	6	3%
Lower Management	11	3	1	12	27	11%
Higher Management or Director	47	14	6	110	177	76%

All the elements collected from the survey were recorded into numerical variables using SPSS and explored further via descriptive data analysis approaches in the form of frequency distributions. Such analysis allowed the authors to establish the initial characteristics of the sample. Like Carlisle et al. (2021) the level of digital proficiency was measured on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (no skills) to 5 (expert skills) with respondents self-evaluating their company or organization’s level of proficiency in each digital skill (See Appendix for a detailed breakdown). For example, 23 organizations in England rated their current skill level for operating system use skills (e.g., Windows) as a 3. All the open qualitative responses were reviewed using content analysis. To determine the gap between current and future skills in the UK, the authors calculated both the average of the current and future level for each criterion, followed by the difference between each of these (see Table 3).

Table 2. Digital skills gaps.

	Current	Future	GAP	GAP %
DIGITAL SKILLS
Operating System use skills (e.g., Windows)	3,8	4,13	0,33	8,68%
Microsoft Office (MS) skills (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint)	3,76	4,18	0,42	11,17%
Skills for implementing online safety procedures	3,38	4,17	0,79	23,37%
Online marketing and communication skills	3,52	4,31	0,79	22,44%
Skills to adjust digital equipment such as Wi-Fi connectivity, sound systems and video projectors	3,4	4,05	0,65	19,12%
Desk top publishing skills (for designing brochures, catalogues, etc.)	3,12	3,82	0,7	22,44%
Computer programming skills	2,31	2,99	0,68	29,44%
Website development skills	2,74	3,73	0,99	36,13%
Social Media skills	3,51	4,32	0,81	23,08%
Skills to monitor online reviews	3,45	4,25	0,80	23,19%
Data analytics, business intelligence, big data skills	2,8	3,77	0,97	34,64%
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics skills	1,64	2,81	1,17	71,34%
Skills related to applying digital hardware technologies, such as Augmented and Virtual Reality	1,77	2,97	1,20	67,80%
TOTAL	3,02	3,81	0,79	30,22%

Table 3. Digital skills training provision.

Do you provide any digital skills training for the employees in your organization (internally or externally provided)?
NTG Project Country	Yes	No
England	55%	45%
Northern Ireland	63%	37%
Scotland	88%	12%
Wales	51%	49%

Results

Current and Future Skill Gap

The results show the skills currently mostly embedded within an organization, i.e. classed as “expert,” in the industry are Operating System (OS) use skills (e.g., Windows) and Microsoft Office (MS) skills (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint), which were present in 18% and 17% of organizations and with a mean proficiency of 3.8 and 3.76 (see Table 2), respectively. AI, robotics, AR, VR, and digital hardware skills were missing in 63% and 58% of organizations, with an existing mean proficiency of 1.64 and 1.77, respectively.

Based on the mean values of 4.32 and 4.31 SM and Online Marketing (OM) and communication seem to be needed the most in the future. The “expert” levels of those skills will be needed by 55% and 49% of respondent organizations, respectively. The skills projected to be least necessary are AI and robotics and AR, VR, and digital hardware skills, with mean values of 2.81 and 2.97, respectively. These skills are projected to be not needed by 26% and 21% of organizations.

The largest gaps, i.e., the difference in the mean value of current and future skills, relate to AI and robotics (1.17;71%) and AR, VR, and digital hardware skills (1.20; 68%). The smallest gap recorded for OS skills was 0.33 (9%) and for MS skills 0.42 (11%).

Training Provision

54.5% of organizations provide some form of digital training and 45.5% provide no training at all (Table 3). The companies which provide training predominantly provide “on the job” training (33%), followed by online courses (18%) and one-day offsite, externally provided training (12%) (Table 4). Higher Education and apprenticeships were the least popular forms of training, supported by only 3% of organizations. The companies who do not provide training cite sole ownership, having no need to embed digital training and lack of budget as the main constraints (Table 5). However, sole owners also need access to digital skills training to update their skills.

Table 4. Mode of digital training provision.

	England	Northern Ireland	Scotland	Wales	Total (n)	Cumulative Percentage
On the Job	27	9	4	58	544	33%
Online Course	12	8	2	31	357	18%
One Day on Site - Training by External Provider	7	6	1	21	212	12%
Several Days on Site - Training by External Provider	4	4	2	10	161	7%
One Day off Site - Training by External Provider	8	4	3	23	242	13%
Several Days off Site - Training by External Provider	1	4	1	8	166	5%
Apprenticeship	5	0	0	5	65	3%
Vocational Training	5	3	0	5	84	4%
Higher Education	4	3	0	3	63	3%
Other	1	1	0	4	28	2%
Totals	74	42	13	168	297	100%

Table 5. Reasons for not providing digital training.

Reasons for not providing digital training	Occurrences
Use of digital media not encouraged by the company	1
No infrastructure (internet or computers)	2
Don’t know	4
No training opportunities are available	6
Lack of time	7
Already have skills needed/employ in line with digital proficiencies	10
Outsourcing all digital needs	13
Budget constraints/lack of funds	14
No need to have digital skills/managers only get trained	21
Sole owner/no employees	21

Discussion

The Future of Digital Skills and Their Implementation

Looking at the recorded skills “gaps” the trends in digital skills mirror globally predicted trends of the increased use of technologies such as AI, AR, and VR (World Economic Forum, 2018), yet the results suggest that digital skills cannot be viewed in terms of “gaps” alone. It is not surprising that the largest gaps are recorded to relate to AI, robotics, AR, and VR since these skills are absent the most. Similarly, skills that are mostly found in businesses, i.e., OS and MS skills, regardless of the level of attainment, record the lowest gap. Consequently, it would be misleading to consider the “gap” in the isolation of the nuanced information.

For instance, looking at AR, VR, AI, and robotics skills, these currently have the highest gap, meaning there will be an increase in the need for people trained in these technologies in the future. Thus, technologies such as AR, VR, AI, and robotics are being adopted in the UK, however, the extent to which such technologies will be needed and/or adopted by various sectors will differ, due to the fragmented, rural, and small nature of some organizations. This is illustrated by the sharp decrease in the number of businesses predicting the lack of necessity to have AR/VR skills (63%) and AI & robotics skills (40%), as well as a relatively high proportion of companies not engaging with those technologies in the future. This creates a need for targeted training strategies, aimed at SMEs, which focus on transferable skills related to digital proficiencies that build a foundation for these technologies to be adopted by a wider portfolio of SME organizations. These training strategies would help to grow SME businesses as pointed out by Olsson and Bernhard (2021), as higher attainment of digital skills is associated with higher employee productivity and efficiency (Erdogan et al., 2011).

Furthermore, the basic task-orientated skills (van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010), i.e., MS and OS system use skills, are classed to be at a moderate proficiency level of 3.76 and 3.8 respectively. This points to relatively low confidence in the skills currently possessed by the employees. Further, these skills record a shift of mean proficiency of 4.13 and 4.18 respectively. This is caused by an increase in the number of businesses needing these skills to be embedded on an “expert level,” i.e., an increase of 56% in MS skills and 51% in OS use skills. This shift is particularly important since these skills are not only classed as basic skills for life but also form the basis for higher-level information processing skills, such as information evaluation (van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010). It seems that there is a need for addressing these higher-level skills as they are likely to not only affect work performance but also broader engagement with everyday life activities (Lloyds Bank, 2020). This therefore would undermine Joosten’s (2017) and Yu et al. (2017) discussions on the need to move away from basic to higher levels of skills development, but rather calls for a stronger digital foundation to be developed in the workforce of the future.

Furthermore, since the industry is characterized by a young workforce, with 40% aged under 30 (People 1st, 2013), this may mean that these employees will be presumed to be “digital natives”, possessing high proficiency levels in these skills, whereas this may not be the case. Thus, these skills must be well embedded before an individual enters the workforce, to ensure they meet the employment expectations. However, this is unlikely to be achieved due to the inadequacies of the current education system and the lack of further training opportunities, particularly for adults (Microsoft, 2021; WorldSkills UK, 2021).

The data suggest that the key future skills relate to SM, OM, and Online Reviews, with mean proficiency required of 4.32, 4.31 and 4.25 respectively. This is further illustrated by a respective increase of 69%, 71% and 69% in businesses requiring these skills to be embedded on an “expert level.” It is important to note these would need to be considered from both the technical and information processing perspectives, particularly since the literature suggests that possessing technical skills or being “digital native,” does not mean an employee will have the skills and understanding of the “right” tone needed to be able to promote the company (Carlisle et al., 2021). “Soft” skills such as communication, storytelling, critical thinking (Adeyinka-Ojo et al., 2020; Ferrari, 2013) need to be embedded in compulsory education as organizations are lacking the knowledge and capacity to train the staff in these fields and complement the SM skills. This is compounded by the fact that these skills are missing in ²/₅ of applicants (Essential Digital Skills Framework, 2019).

There is a high recognition of the need for engagement with SM, yet, reflecting a broader SME environment (Lloyds Bank, 2019), the data suggest that 3% of businesses will not engage at all with these SM platforms. This may be due to a lack of skills, access to funding or because of a lack of awareness of the business benefits. This is further complicated by the lack of website development skills, with a recorded gap of 36%. This means that businesses often outsource this facility; whilst this is a common practice, this may be dangerous due to the fragmented nature of the sector, where the selling point is the unique and personalized offering. Outsourcing of website content management and lack of SM engagement may lead to losing the unique company identity, and the ability to be agile in terms of content and solutions management.

Digital Training Provided and Its Fit

Almost half of the surveyed organizations do not provide any digital training, and 33% of organizations that do, do so “on the job.” This is not surprising and fits with the historical way of training, however, the future skills are unlikely to be embedded within the organizations, since, as discussed, these are either absent or on low proficiency levels to begin with. This will further deepen the digital divide between organizations that can attract a higher-skilled workforce and those that cannot, e.g. large to small organizations and rural versus urban settings. This paints a particularly problematic picture for the tourism-related sector as it may both affect productivity and opportunities (Carlisle et al., 2021; Erdogan et al., 2011). Lower skills present in a workplace make it difficult to deliver high-quality work and may increase operating costs, whilst at the same time making the employee who is possessing sufficient digital skills face an increased workload.

Other forms of training provided include online courses (18%) and day-long externally provided training (12%). This leads to several observations. Firstly, since this and previous research (Minor et al., 2019) highlight the limited availability of suitable, industry-focused courses, the reliance on online provision may be counterproductive. This results in the skills developed not suiting the business needs or being too generic to address gaps, making the time dedicated an ineffective resource allocation. Secondly, businesses that miss out on digital training, due to infrastructure or other barriers, remain unaware of the benefits digital technologies may bring to the business. Thirdly, employees’ commitment and abilities need to be considered in line with the suitability for such training. For instance, considering the downward trend of adult learning participation (Dumicic et al., 2019), the employee may not want to be trained, particularly if they are older; people with low digital skills may find it overwhelming to learn them, particularly in an online environment (Pavez et al., 2017); and addressing one skill does not make an employee digitally proficient, as missing skills rarely occur in isolation (van Laar et al., 2020). Lastly, the data suggests a preference for short training courses, which would not disrupt day to day business operations, rendering the current off-line training provision supported by the Government (DDMS, 2017) an unrealistic option for businesses due to the required time commitment.

The 55% of businesses that do not provide any digital training quote a lack of funds, time, or knowledge as the underlying reasons for the lack of digital training provision. This is not surprising considering the SME nature of the industry, where a day of training is a high cost due to a business closing or needing to replace an employee. Furthermore, organizations often do not see the need to train or only train the management, which can lead as pointed out by Erdogan et al. (2011) and Carlisle et al. (2021), to lower productivity. Furthermore, getting organizations to realize the long-term value of developing digital skills to move their businesses forward is a challenge. Managers may fail to recognize that the lack of training does not prepare the business for an increasingly digitalized future. This means that, similarly to Haven-Tang and Jones (2008), tourist businesses will be less agile and reactive to customer trends and will be unable to meet the tourists’ expectations long-term.

Conclusions and Contributions

The value and contribution of this research is the identification of an ongoing issue in the lack of digital skills, digital skills training, and education. This is reflected by the fact that the primary data collection occurred pre-pandemic and can be used as a barometer to see which skills were considered important and continue to be of relevance. This research also correlates with the UK-wide digital policy review that identifies the urgency in addressing the current and future digital skills gaps. Therefore, this research helps to compare previous gaps with any new skills development that should occur within companies and educational institutions in the future. Some of the skill sets that were investigated in this paper will remain the same and new skills will always develop as new technologies and equipment progress. The skill sets investigated in this research also match the EU Digi Comp framework 2.0 which continues to be used to this day and have been used to influence the Qualifications Wales (2023) Travel and Tourism Sector review.

Theoretical Implications

This paper aligns with Van Laar’s (2017) findings, highlighting that the rapid adoption of digital technology can reinforce existing social inequalities. Therefore, addressing digital skills needs should be a top priority for educational strategies and industry training. The paper emphasizes that the lack of digital competencies can limit business opportunities, putting SMEs and rural businesses at risk of restricted growth and missed revenue. This can also negatively impact communities, leading to fewer job creation opportunities and lower levels of tourism development.

Moreover, the authors recognize that recruitment strategies focused solely on industry experience and traditional customer service skills can result in individuals lacking basic computer skills. However, it should be acknowledged that digital technologies play a crucial role in delivering and enhancing customer service across various stages of the customer journey, such as planning, purchasing, and experiencing. Hence, the absence of a digital focus can compromise the company’s operations and engagement with both digital technologies and customers.

Practical Implications

This paper presents a paradox in employment, where organizations fail to realize the potential value of technology by recruiting people with no or low digital competencies. Thus, it is crucial to embed digital core competencies in compulsory education and provide flexible digital adult education, as emphasized by Sigala (2021). The paper builds upon Tavitiyaman et al. (2023) work and highlights the urgency of addressing digital skills gaps by both educational institutions and the industry. This research identifies the most critical digital skills required by the industry and emphasizes their integration into compulsory education, creating a digitally competent society regardless of the career level.

Moreover, the paper emphasizes the need for SMEs to address their real training needs to meet their future digital skills requirements. It contributes to digital skills evidence by highlighting the necessity of creating targeted adult digital training for SMEs, addressing their short-term needs. The paper suggests that due to industry time and cost obstacles, the government should support digital literacy courses, which should be flexible in terms of content, time, and mode of delivery and account for industry-specific needs. These courses should provide technical and literacy skills to address the varied and complex needs of learners.

Limitations and Future Research

The authors acknowledge that digital skills will continue to rise in importance to employers and may form a core set of career related skills. Therefore, this paper may be used to build upon the work of Tolkach and Tung (2019) and examine the potential relationships between digital skills, employability, mobility and careers prospects in the tourism and hospitality industries. Due to the changing nature of the industries, one of the limitations of this research was the use of the EU Digi Comp framework 2.0; whilst the framework is current, skills may need to be reviewed in line with the new and emerging technologies being developed and implemented within the industry. Therefore, any future research should aim to map digital competencies related to technologies of the future which were out of the scope of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Appendix

Current and future skills in the organizations, per country, number of total responses.

Table

(Scale from 1 (no skills present) to 5 (expert))	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
ENGLAND (n = 64)	2019					2030
Operating System use skills (e.g., Windows)	1	2	23	22	16	1	2	10	20	31
Microsoft Office skills (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint)	1	2	22	26	13	1	2	9	22	30
Skills for implementing online safety procedures	1	7	27	21	8	2	1	10	22	29
Online marketing and communication skills	1	11	25	20	7	1	2	16	15	30
Skills to adjust digital equipment such as Wi-Fi connectivity, sound systems, and video projectors	3	7	23	25	6	1	3	14	15	31
Desktop publishing skills (for designing brochures, catalogs, etc.)	8	9	27	11	9	3	7	17	12	25
Computer programming skills	20	16	11	13	4	10	10	16	8	20
Website development skills	17	15	15	12	5	6	8	15	11	24
Social Media skills	7	11	19	18	9	3	4	10	12	35
Skills to monitor online reviews	3	11	19	21	10	3	3	11	15	32
Data analytics, business intelligence, big data skills	15	12	19	12	6	8	5	12	13	26
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics skills	37	12	11	4	0	13	11	16	9	15
Skills related to applying digital hardware technologies, such as AR/VR	35	12	12	5	0	12	11	19	9	13
NORTHERN IRELAND (n = 19)	2019					2030
Operating System use skills (e.g., Windows)	1	2	6	6	4	0	1	1	9	8
Microsoft Office skills (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint)	0	3	6	8	2	0	1	1	7	10
Skills for implementing online safety procedures	1	3	7	5	3	0	2	2	7	8
Online marketing and communication skills	1	3	1	8	6	0	1	1	4	13
Skills to adjust digital equipment such as Wi-Fi connectivity, sound systems, and video projectors	1	4	1	10	3	0	2	4	5	8
Desktop publishing skills (for designing brochures, catalogs, etc.)	1	4	5	8	1	0	1	3	9	6
Computer programming skills	7	5	4	2	1	1	4	8	3	3
Website development skills	3	4	6	3	3	0	4	3	5	7
Social Media skills	0	3	4	5	7	0	1	2	3	13
Skills to monitor online reviews	1	1	6	6	5	0	1	2	5	11
Data analytics, business intelligence, big data skills	3	3	5	6	2	0	1	3	7	8
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics skills	11	3	2	3	0	2	6	3	5	3
Skills related to applying digital hardware technologies, such as AR/VR	10	2	4	2	1	1	5	3	5	5
SCOTLAND (n = 8)	2019					2030
Operating System use skills (e.g., Windows)	0	0	2	4	2	0	0	1	4	3
Microsoft Office skills (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint)	0	1	2	3	2	0	1	0	3	4
Skills for implementing online safety procedures	0	0	0	3	5	0	0	2	1	5
Online marketing and communication skills	0	2	3	0	3	0	1	0	3	4
Skills to adjust digital equipment such as Wi-Fi connectivity, sound systems, and video projectors	0	2	2	1	3	0	0	2	3	3
Desktop publishing skills (for designing brochures, catalogs, etc.)	0	3	2	1	2	0	1	3	2	2
Computer programming skills	1	3	1	2	1	0	3	1	2	2
Website development skills	1	3	1	0	3	0	1	3	1	3
Social Media skills	0	1	4	2	1	0	0	1	3	4
Skills to monitor online reviews	0	0	4	2	2	0	1	0	1	6
Data analytics, business intelligence, big data skills	1	2	2	2	1	0	0	3	2	3
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics skills	5	1	1	1	1	1	2	3	0	2
Skills related to applying digital hardware technologies, such as AR/VR	4	2	1	1	0	1	1	3	1	2
WALES (n = 142)	2019					2030
Operating System use skills (e.g., Windows)	0	4	37	80	21	4	0	23	70	45
Microsoft Office skills (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint)	0	6	37	77	22	2	1	19	73	47
Skills for implementing online safety procedures	5	20	53	48	16	3	4	13	69	53
Online marketing and communication skills	3	12	44	66	17	2	1	7	64	68
Skills to adjust digital equipment such as Wi-Fi connectivity, sound systems and video projectors	5	19	51	51	16	3	5	22	69	43
Desktop publishing skills (for designing brochures, catalogs, etc.)	10	33	47	33	19	5	12	24	64	37
Computer programming skills	53	39	23	18	9	38	24	28	30	22
Website development skills	28	33	40	26	15	8	13	27	50	44
Social Media skills	3	10	46	62	21	3	0	13	50	76
Skills to monitor online reviews	8	17	41	57	19	2	2	13	60	65
Data analytics, business intelligence, big data skills	28	28	43	31	12	8	14	23	58	39
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics skills	95	24	16	3	4	44	25	25	31	17
Skills related to applying digital hardware technologies, such as AR/VR	86	24	22	7	3	36	20	29	39	18