1.0 Introduction

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The aim of the Human Resource Module (HRM) is to provide timely and reliable statistics on the human resource dimension of tourism. Both the Canadian Tourism Satellite Account (CTSA) and the National Tourism Indicators (NTI) already carry some limited information on the number of jobs generated by tourism, while the former carries information on the labour income associated with these jobs as well.

The HRM complements and enhances the analytical capacity provided by the CTSA and the NTI, allowing for a broader insight into tourism's role in the economy. It also serves as a useful planning and forecasting tool for policy makers in the tourism, employment and training areas. Various tourism-affiliated agencies, academics, and decision-makers in tourism will also be able to use it for research and analysis, planning and development.

Human resource planning involves all persons working in tourism, irrespective of whether their income comes directly from serving a tourist or a non-tourist. Consequently, the total number of jobs in tourism industries is a major focus of the HRM. This is broader than the CTSA and the NTI, which portray only the jobs generated by tourism demand.

It should be emphasized that, for consistency with the Canadian System of National Economic Accounts (CSNEA), the HRM uses the number of jobs as its key measure of employment. This is not the same as the Labour Force Survey measure of employment, which is the number of people employed. The two differ because of multiple job-holders, thus the former exceeds the latter by the number of people with second, third, etc., jobs.

Outlining the rest of the report, the following two sections discuss the accounting frameworks behind the HRM, key tourism concepts and definitions from the CTSA, and various labour concepts and definitions from the CSNEA. The scope of the study, including description of the industry groups and occupations used, is described next. Selected results are then discussed to demonstrate analytical uses of the HRM. Conclusions and future work are discussed in the last section.

Appendix A summarizes the data sources and Appendix B outlines the methodology. Appendix C provides a list of North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) industries included in the industry groups of the HRM while Appendix D lists the occupations. A summary of the tables available in the HRM is included in Appendix E. A glossary of terms and list of references are also provided.