Glenn Camus checks in at the front desk at Hotel Zero Degrees in Stamford, Connecticut. Hospitality jobs are a growth area for Asheville.
(Photo: Eileen Blass , USAT )
ASHEVILLE Halong Bay Excursions – A solid career with a good paycheck is what Jon Hessler wanted after serving as an Army officer in Afghanistan.
He found his break in an industry often dismissed for lower wages and part-time work.
Hessler had interned at a hotel as a front desk clerk during high school and had stayed in touch with his first employers.
After mustering out of the Army as a first lieutenant, he started work last August as sales manager for Asheville’s three Hampton Inns and the Homewood Suites Hilton.
At age 28, he’s getting married next month and just closed on the purchase of his first house, thanks to an annual salary around Buncombe County’s average of $35,748.
Tourism wages still fall short of those paid in industries like manufacturing, but they have been on the upswing — and managers increasingly are naming their own price.
That’s especially true in the Asheville area, which has been enjoying an increase in income levels. Median family income in the Asheville metro market grew at a faster rate than any other North Carolina metro last year.
“It’s a tight job market in Asheville, but I would encourage anybody to take a look at this field.” Hessler said. “It matches the cost of living.”
Tourism jobs grew at a 6.8 percent clip in 2013, contributing nearly half — 1,500 — of the 3,200 net new jobs added around the Asheville metro area of Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With 25,500 workers in hotels, restaurant and other tourism jobs, leisure and hospitality posted a record number of area jobs in May.
But with more seasonal and entry level workers, hospitality jobs paid on average only $345 a week in 2013 compared to the far fewer full-time workers in manufacturing, who earned a weekly average of $890 last year.
The median income for an Asheville area family jumped by 3.9 percent over the past year to $56,000 annually, ahead of Greensboro-High Point at $55,100 and Fayetteville at $52,800, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Despite the faster growth, Asheville family income still far lags behind Raleigh-Cary, where the median household income reaches $75,800 in the tech-heavy Research Triangle Park or the financial powerhouse Charlotte, with household median income of $64,700.
Yet tourism jobs sometimes http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/nha-trang-da-lat-excursions-2-days-1-night/ get http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/nha-trang-da-lat-excursions-2-days-1-night/ a bad rap as low pay and part-time as critics point to minimum wage burger flippers and housekeepers. Industry advocates say don’t overlook the sales staff, managers, human resources and financial officers and other professional services in hotels or restaurant chains.
“I think those critics are wrong,” said longtime Asheville hotelier John Winkenwerder, managing partner of South Asheville Hotel Associates.
“While the starting pay may be a little lower than other, the opportunity to mid- and upper tiers of income is wide open,” he said. “We promote people. It’s not usual to hire someone for the front desk, and in less than two years, that person is an assistant general manager.”
With even more training, full-time supervisors in hotels and restaurants can command salaries comparable to other sectors.
“We get more salaried job offers than we can fill,” said Walter Rapetski with the Hospitality Management program at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. “Over the past five years, graduates have been getting positions with salaries ranging from $34,000 to $65,000 because our students graduate with the skills industry wants.”
A path forward
Rapetski appeared as a panelist at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Charlotte this spring, pressing his message that hospitality plays an important role in the local economy, but especially Asheville’s.
While tourism’s entry level positions typically pay above minimum wage of $7.25 an hour but often below Asheville’s living wage of $11.85, promotions and higher paychecks may be more readily available with the right work ethic.
“We are heavy with hourly line employees, but people chi tiet can move up quickly,” Rapetski said. “This industry creates more minority and female management positions than any other industry nationwide.”
Brenda Durden would agree. She started in high school, working as a front desk agent 24 years ago. “I was fairly young, but I liked taking care of people. It was part of my DNA, and I knew I could grow in this business. I was not afraid to step up and take on challenges and that does get rewarded in our industry.”
She was the first female general manager for the South Asheville Hotel Associates and now serves as the company’s chief operating officer.
“Tourism is so critical to our area. It makes perfect sense to count on hospitality careers as good choices after we’ve lost jobs in so many other industries,” Durden said. “These are jobs that are here to stay.”
The job market has been tightening for hospitality in the past year, tham khao o day putting pressure upwards on salaries, Durden said. “It’s getting tougher to find the right candidates. We have to be competitive.”
Of the company’s 140 employees about 10 percent work part time. Employees start above minimum wage with benefits including health and dental care, life insurance and paid vacations, Durden said.
No outsourcing
Discerning travelers who come to Asheville have their choice of destinations and are paying good money for their stay here, Winkenwerder said.
“If they’ve selected Asheville over Charleston or Savannah, you’re not going to http://www.Journeymekong.Com/tour/unique-beauty-excursions-of-the-north-4-days-3nights/ satisfy them with a team of workers who are all making minimum wage,” he said.
It’s not just hotels that decent paychecks for managers, restaurants around Asheville don’t run without well-paid supervisors, Rapetski said.
“These are jobs that aren’t going to get outsourced. These dining rooms are full around Asheville,” he said. “For each of these restaurants, there are probably five to six salaried supervisors. You look at a general manager at Outback steak house or Olive Garden, these people are making between $60,000 to $100,000.
Asheville’s economy has done well in the past year with a falling unemployment rate and rising incomes along with announcements of more manufacturing jobs, said Paul Szurek, chairman of the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville and Buncombe County. “We are hearing about hotel companies having to pay more.”
The EDC and Asheville Area Chamber is focusing more efforts, not just in manufacturing or in tourism, but in building up more technology jobs and start-up companies that could expand here from one and two founders to staffs of 10 to 15, Szurek said.
“We need to make more headway in professional, technology and other similar jobs,” Szurek said. “We’re never going to be a banking center like Charlotte, but there are portions of the financial industry that can expand here, like investment managers.”
“Tourism is part of what’s raising the wages for our community. These are jobs that can’t be outsourced.” Rapetski argued. “What’s lacking for Asheville perhaps is the professional base that cities like Raleigh and Charlotte have.”
BY THE NUMBERS
• 6.8 percent: Grown of Asheville metro area tourism jobs in 2013.
• 25,500: Workers in hotels, restaurant and other tourism jobs.
• $345: Average weekly salary for tourism jobs, compared with $890 in manufacturing.
• $56,000: Median income for an Asheville area family, or $1,077 a week (family income may include multiple earners)
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