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• Tourism industries in the Human Resource Module (HRM) include five industry groups which are defined as follows: transportation, accommodation, food and beverage services, recreation and entertainment and travel services. Generally speaking, an industry is considered a tourism industry if it would cease to exist, or continue to exist only at a significantly reduced level of activity, as a direct result of the absence of tourism.

• The HRM provides the following key statistics for the tourism sector as a whole and for each tourism industry group: jobs, hours and compensation. These statistics are available by sex, by work status, by age group, by immigrant status and by occupation.

• All statistics provided by the HRM are related to production in tourism industries. For example, statistics concerning jobs are about the number of jobs required to produce commodities in tourism industries whether the commodities are consumed by visitors or non-visitors, that is, local residents.

• In 2011, the tourism sector accounted for 1.7 million jobs, that is, 9.4% of all jobs in Canada. The number of jobs in tourism grew by 1.9%, outpacing job growth in the total economy (+1.6%).

• The food and beverage services industry group was the largest employer among tourism industries in 2011, with more than 50% of all tourism jobs (893,000 jobs). The second largest employer was recreation and entertainment with 277,000 jobs, followed by accommodation with 229,000 jobs. The transportation industry group was responsible for 217,000 jobs, while travel services provided 45,000 jobs.

• Working hours were shorter in tourism industries compared to jobs economy-wide. The shorter work week is explained by the higher proportion of part-time jobs in tourism.

• Since 1997, hourly compensation has been lower in the tourism sector than economy-wide. The gap has widened gradually from $5.76 in 1997 to $10.93 in 2011.

• Food-counter attendants and kitchen helpers and related occupations were the single largest occupation in the tourism sector with 266,000 jobs. Almost all of these jobs (249,000) were in the food and beverage services industry group. Airline sales and service agents were the main occupation in air transportation, but accounted for only 11,000 jobs. In other transportation industries, the most prevalent occupation was bus drivers and subway and other transit operators, with 50,000 jobs. Light duty cleaners were the main occupation in accommodation, with 44,000 jobs, while program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness were the most common occupation in recreation and entertainment, with 36,000 jobs. Travel counsellors were the main occupation in travel services, with 19,000 jobs.

• One tourism industry group employed a notably older workforce: older workers accounted for 63.3% of all employee jobs in other transportation industries. By comparison, the next oldest workforce was that of air transportation, with 45.5% of all employee jobs held by persons aged 45 years or older.

• On an hourly basis, wages were lower for immigrants than for non-immigrants in the tourism sector, but on an annual basis, immigrants earned more ($28,662 versus $25,706 for non-immigrants) because they worked more hours.