Parlez-vous... anglais? Is a language skills shortage holding the UK travel sector back?

Others believe factors such as Brexit have widened the gap in recent years, with the divisive vote precipitating the departure of hundreds of thousands of people for whom English wasn’t their first language.

“With Brexit, a lot of multi-lingual people left the UK, and that has led to a [skills] shortfall in the industry, particularly French and German speakers,” said Demi Crewe, director of recruitment agency Jayne Peirce Travel Recruitment.

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Brexit also curtailed travel businesses’ freedom under the EU Posted Workers Directive to "post" UK residents overseas to work season travel roles, such as in ski chalets.

Skiworld’s Palumbo, who is also a director of Seasonal Businesses in Travel (Sbit), a trade body representing around 120 outbound travel businesses, suggested the UK’s language skills gap was ultimately a symptom of the UK government failing to recognise the economic value of travel.

“Prior to the pandemic, the travel industry contributed around £39 billion to the UK economy,” she said. “You’d think the government would back the skills needed by an industry that represents that kind of money. It feels like the travel industry has never really been recognised for its contribution to the economy, and that’s the root of the language skills gap.”

Positive change?

To overcome this gap, Kolosinska, Steiner and Crewe believe travel must first band together to highlight to government travel’s economic significance. “Travel is a key service industry for Great Britain and in order to support travel, we should have courses at colleges and universities that always include a foreign language,” Palumbo said.

“We need high-standard courses that are demanding and always include a period of time abroad because understanding the culture of the people you’re working with is equally important.”

Palumbo’s comments come after the Department for Education, late last year, committed nearly £15 million to expanding a language hubs scheme, designed to increase the quality of language teaching for 14- to 18-year-olds.

She said bridging the language skills gap would also help travel and tourism build better relations with foreign partners, especially in the post-Brexit era. “We should be doing more to move in the direction of our partners now that we’re out of the European Union,” Palumbo continued. “I think it’s arrogant to walk into a meeting and assume everyone around you speaks English.”

Steiner, meanwhile, said the government “should try and provide better advice and opportunities” in terms of career guidance where languages help.

Kolosinska, on the other hand, has called on the industry to shake up its recruitment practices to recruit people with the necessary language skills. “The sector should take on people who have got language and teach them the skills needed within the travel sector."

Crewe added it was incumbent on travel to work with schools and colleges, and to lobby government, to make the case for language teaching to be a more significant priority.

Brexit was supposed to be a platform for the UK to take control of its destiny on a global scale; however, where some saw opportunity, others predicted isolation.

In a post-Brexit world, language skills will no doubt prove increasingly important, if not essential, to travel maintaining optimal business relationships with partners – quite literally – around the globe.