HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY'S COMPETITION IN TERMS OF ATTRACTING AND RETAINING VALUABLE HR IN EASTERN EUROPE – THE CASE OF ROMANIA

The particularity of hospitality industries in Eastern Europe is that, although most the officials consider tourism & hospitality a strategic priority, a vast majority of researchers and industrialists agree that not enough steps have been taken. Our research focused on the case of Romania, a country facing the challenge of limited qualified personnel in the field, and was built upon qualitative and quantitative tools, examining three groups of potential, part-time & full-time employees, as well as employers, as a fourth group. Results largely support literature in terms of employees being underpaid, undertrained and insufficiently motivated. Still, they can be considered rather suprising in terms of decreasing interest of graduates for the hospitality sector over time and migration to other sectors.