Travel and tourism will support 376 million jobs in 2026, about one in nine jobs worldwide, up from 366 million in 2025. That is the forecast the World Travel & Tourism Council published on 12 May 2026. Pay in the sector sits well below the wider economy. In Australia, full-time adults in accommodation and food services earned A$1,509.90 a week in May 2026, against A$2,083.70 across all industries, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
This directory covers where hotel, resort, tour-operator and event jobs are advertised: specialist boards, the careers sites of the large hotel and travel groups, the fraud warnings those groups publish, training and data sources, the forums where hospitality workers talk, and pay figures from seven countries. Every site below was opened on 29 or 30 October 2026. Where a page did not state a salary, a closing date or a visa policy, this post says so. Individual vacancies are kept in a separate list of current open positions, checked regularly.
The hotel groups below post vacancies property by property, and a global careers site does not mean visa sponsorship. Seasonal and working-holiday routes into the sector are covered in working holiday job boards.
Four hospitality job boards and what their pages state
Hosco
Hosco describes itself as a platform connecting hospitality professionals around the world, with job search, profiles and career advice. The sample listings on its home page on 30 October 2026 were in France, Belgium and Brazil, including a five-month fixed-term contract in Nice. It states no job or member count.
- Strength: Hospitality-only, with sample listings in three countries on two continents.
- Limit: No listing count, country list or statement on fees for candidates appears on the pages opened.
EURES
The European Union’s EURES portal lists vacancies posted across member states, with a feed of jobs added in the last seven days, country filters, living and working guides, and European Job Days recruitment events held online and in person. It also offers chat with EURES advisers and a Europass CV builder.
- Strength: A public service with cross-border advice alongside the vacancies, and no charge to job seekers.
- Limit: The home page gives no vacancy total, and access to each job still depends on the country’s work-permit rules.
Hcareers
Hcareers is a hotel and restaurant job board with search by category, brand, state and remote work. Its page title claims 20,000+ jobs while its own meta description says 4,077 opportunities, and the page names no operator.
- Strength: Search by hotel brand makes it easy to compare openings across a single chain.
- Limit: The browse options are organized by US state, the two job counts contradict each other, and no fee information for job seekers is stated.
Hospitality Online
Hospitality Online showed 7,394 current jobs on 30 October 2026, posted by hotels, casinos, convention centers and management companies, with a paid posting route for employers. It has Spanish and French interfaces, and its job pages include some properties outside the US.
- Strength: Ads name the property and, often, the management company behind it.
- Limit: Every listing on the home page was in the US, and one Bangkok ad opened for this check had been posted on 25 October 2024 with no closing date.
National general boards carry many hotel and restaurant jobs in Asia, Australia and Latin America; they are covered in the regional job boards directory.
Five hotel and travel groups that recruit on their own sites
Accor
The Accor job search listed 7,204 vacancies on 30 October 2026, across about 74 countries and 50 brands, with France (1,199), India (805) and the US (583) the largest. Filters cover job category, experience level, schedule and job type, including 242 internships, 50 apprenticeships and 31 graduate programs. Each ad names the hotel and duties.
- Strength: The largest single employer search found for this directory, with separate student and graduate routes.
- Limit: Every listing shows an expiry date of 01/01/0001, an unset placeholder rather than a deadline, and the salary field is usually blank.
Marriott International
The Marriott careers site covers hotel jobs, corporate jobs, flexible staffing and early careers across more than 30 brands, with a separate visa programs page. Front-desk and guest-relations ads opened for this check, from Bali to Fes, listed a high school diploma as preferred and no prior experience.
- Strength: Entry requirements are stated in a standard format across countries, which makes ads easy to compare.
- Limit: The ads opened gave no pay, posting date, closing date or language requirement.
TUI Group
TUI says it employs more than 65,000 people and recruits for hotels and destinations, cruises, its airline, retail and head office. Its job alerts split hotels and destinations into local-resident roles and work-abroad roles, and destination ads state the contract type and, often, the base pay.
- Strength: Ads say plainly whether a role is for local residents or for staff sent abroad, and several state pay.
- Limit: Many work-abroad roles require an EU passport or EU work permit and German or another European language.
IHG Hotels & Resorts
IHG accepts applications only through the “Search and Apply” route on its careers site, and its FAQ says it does not accept speculative applications, paper resumes or emailed CVs. It also does not accept candidates sent by agencies without a signed agreement.
- Strength: The application rules are stated plainly, which makes fake offers easier to spot.
- Limit: The careers search could not be opened for this check, so no IHG vacancies are counted here.
Hilton
Hilton lists vacancies on jobs.hilton.com and publishes a recruitment fraud notice naming warning signs: requests for passport or bank details, requests to contact lawyers or couriers, offers to split fees, and pressure to act quickly. Fraud can be reported to Hilton’s information security team.
- Strength: The notice states that Hilton never asks applicants for money and names a reporting address.
- Limit: The job search could not be opened for this check, and Hilton ads found elsewhere were on third-party boards.
What IHG, Hilton and Australia’s Scamwatch say about fake offers
IHG’s FAQ warns that fake agencies post ads and send forged application forms, contracts and visa documents using its name and hotel images, often aimed at overseas applicants. It states that the group never asks candidates to pay for insurance, visas, work permits or temporary accommodation, and gives a reporting address. Hilton’s notice makes the same commitment on fees. For Gulf hotel jobs, the rules on fees and job changes are covered in working in the Gulf after kafala.
Australia’s Scamwatch guidance, last updated on 22 January 2026, lists the patterns that recur in hospitality fraud: unexpected contact by text or encrypted apps, hiring with no interview, and a “recruitment fee” or training payment before any pay is earned.
WTTC research and AHLEI certification
World Travel & Tourism Council
WTTC’s economic impact research, produced annually with Oxford Economics, covers 184 countries and economies and 28 regions. The 2026 release forecasts almost 89 million new jobs in the sector over the next decade, about a third of all new jobs expected across the wider economy, and a GDP contribution of US$12 trillion in 2026, or 9.9% of the global total.
- Strength: Country-level figures allow comparison between destinations.
- Limit: The job totals are modeled estimates, not counts of advertised vacancies, and the release does not say how much of the total is direct employment.
American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute
AHLEI offers online courses and exams for line staff, including Certified Front Desk Representative, Certified Guestroom Attendant, Certified Restaurant Server and Certified Kitchen Cook, plus a Certified Guest Service Professional credential.
- Strength: Credentials are tied to specific hotel jobs, from breakfast attendant to maintenance.
- Limit: The overview page shows no prices and does not say which employers or countries recognize the certificates.
Four subreddits and two hospitality video channels
Reddit refused direct access, so member counts below come from GummySearch, a third-party analytics site, as of 26 October 2026, and are rounded.
r/KitchenConfidential
About 1.9 million members, up 278,000 in a year, per its GummySearch entry, which calls it the largest online community of food industry workers. Complaints and advice requests are the most common posts.
r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk
About 1.1 million members, up 41,000 in a year, according to GummySearch’s page. Front desk and reception workers, mostly in hotels, share accounts of difficult guests and ask for solutions.
r/askhotels
About 38,000 members, up 11,000 in a year, per GummySearch. It is a question forum about hotels, used by guests as well as staff.
r/travelagents
About 29,000 members, up 10,000 in a year, per its GummySearch entry, for current or aspiring travel agents and advisors. Advice requests are the most common post type.
Hospitality Net TV
Hospitality Net TV carries 211 video and podcast interviews with hotel owners, operators and technology suppliers. The listing shows no publication dates, so its pace of publishing could not be checked.
Talking Hospitality
Talking Hospitality, run by a UK company, publishes video interviews and podcast clips on people and culture, operations and technology. Its latest video was dated 29 October 2026.
Pay figures from seven countries, sorted by who produced them
The figures below count different things and are not converted between currencies: annual and monthly figures in Japan, hourly ranges in Canada and New Zealand, a weekly industry average in Australia, an annual guide range in the UK, a monthly estimate in South Africa and annual medians in the US. Each row is labeled official, government career guide, or estimate.
| Role | Figure | Source with date |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel and ryokan front desk, Japan | ¥3,624,000 a year, average age 41.9; job-offer average ¥241,000 a month | Official: Japan’s job tag site, 2025 wage survey; job offers for fiscal 2025 and June 2026 |
| Hotel front desk clerk, Canada | C$15.50 low, C$19.00 median, C$26.50 high per hour | Official: Job Bank, updated 19 November 2025, reference period 2023 to 2024 |
| Accommodation and food services, full-time adults, Australia (industry, not occupation) | A$1,509.90 a week, against A$2,083.70 for all industries | Official: Australian Bureau of Statistics, May 2026 |
| Hotel and motel receptionist, New Zealand | NZ$24 to NZ$30 an hour most common; NZ$37 upper | Government career guide: Tahatu, checked October 2026; data source not named on the page |
| Hotel manager, UK | £30,000 starter to £60,000 experienced a year | Government career guide: National Careers Service, checked October 2026 |
| Hotel receptionist, South Africa | R6,412 to R15,938 a month, range for the majority | Estimate: WageIndicator, 2026 |
| Hotel, motel and resort desk clerk, US (accommodation industry) | US$34,990 median a year | Official: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025 |
| Maids and housekeeping cleaners, US (accommodation industry) | US$34,900 median a year | Official: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, same table, 2025 |
| Lodging manager, US | US$69,250 median a year | Official: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 |
| Meeting, convention and event planner, US | US$61,160 median a year | Official: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 |
| Travel agent, US | US$50,160 median a year | Official: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 |
The Australian row covers a whole industry, restaurants and cafes included, so it is not a hotel wage. Japan’s two figures measure different things: the annual figure is what front desk staff earned, while the monthly figure is the average offered in public employment-service vacancies. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 4% growth for lodging managers and 6% for event planners from 2025 to 2035, with little or no change for travel agents; those projections describe US occupations only.
Gaps in the pay data, and the next WTTC release
No official hotel pay figure could be confirmed for Singapore, Spain, Brazil or Argentina in this check. Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower publishes occupational wages for more than 500 occupations, released on 30 June 2026, but only as downloadable tables that could not be read; WageIndicator’s pages for the other three countries blocked access. None of the Gulf hotel ads opened during this check stated a salary.
WTTC publishes its economic impact research each year, and the 2026 edition came out on 12 May 2026, so updated country figures are due around May 2027 if the schedule holds. The US projections run to 2035.
Related Links
- Browse all fields on Find Jobs
- WTTC: Travel and tourism growth to outpace wider economy
- IHG Careers: FAQ and recruitment fraud warning
- Hilton: Recruitment fraud notice
- Scamwatch: Jobs and employment scams
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: Average weekly earnings, May 2026
- Singapore Ministry of Manpower: Occupational wages 2025