As the global economic crisis unfolds, companies around the globe are putting their investments on hold and cutting costs wherever they can - with most companies cutting jobs.

Thousands of jobs have already been lost in the tourism industry over the past few months and 2009 looks like it will be even worse for people in the tourism sector. Estimates suggest that in Ireland, 25,000 jobs were lost: “Preliminary data indicates that tourism employment fell by up to 10pc in 2008, accounting for 20,000 to 25,000 jobs, Failte Ireland Chief Executive Shaun Quinn said yesterday.”

The tourism sector is a complex economy intertwined with all sorts of elements, from exchange rates, to oil prices, supply and demand of hotel rooms and weather conditions amongst others. Those jobs that suffered most in the tourism industry appear to be in the hotel and restaurant sector. In the UK, those working in the tourism industry were neither immune to the global economic crisis, with “Deloitte estimating a loss of 100,000 jobs”, in Britain.

“Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of VisitBritain, warned that 50,000 jobs could be lost this year as a result of the recession and poor service would be responsible for some of them.” This is a very important point and I believe a fundamental underlying factor in what we can expect in coming months and perhaps even years: Poor service will take its toll on business. During the boom years companies and employees could get away with all kinds of poor service and negligence towards customers. With a recession affecting countries around the globe, poor service will be punished and will result in jobs being lost.

The tourism industry, just like many other sectors, needs to reinvent itself. The years of growth, of hotels sprouting up from the ground like mushrooms, are of the past. If the tourism industry wants to survive, it will need to refocus on “customer is King” attitudes and quality of service.