The purpose of this article is to identify developments and key features of hospitality and tourism labour markets and to consider how these have evolved and changed at both macro and micro levels in so far as the identification, recruitment, development and retention of “talent” is concerned. This article will identify the dynamic nature of hospitality and tourism labour markets and conclude with an analysis of the consequences that this presents for talent management strategies. In this context, talent management is taken to be the strategic management of the talent as it enters, is deployed and moves within an organisation. Talent management is an organisational mindset that seeks to assure that the supply of talent is available to align the right people with the right jobs at the right time, based on strategic business objectives.
Talent, in the context of hospitality and tourism, however, does not necessarily mean the same thing as it might in other sectors of the economy. Our understanding of skills encompasses a bundling that goes beyond the technical to incorporate emotional, aesthetic and informational processing and analysis dimensions with