Tourism jobs in demand: Where the best contracts and high salaries go at online offers.

It has been suggested that the tourism sector is one in which temporary and low-skilled jobs abound. The aim of this study is to analyze the educational and experience requirements associated with job offers in tourism and their corresponding contracts and salaries. Nine thousand job advertisements were analyzed from one of the biggest employment websites in Spain. Online job offers allow a profile of employers' preferences to be drawn up in terms of occupations, educational levels and required experience, as well as the terms of contracts and salaries offered. Internal heterogeneity in the tourism sector arising from the coexistence of different functions and skills is highlighted. Our analysis shows that the occupation crucially conditions salary differences and contract types in tourism job offers. • Occupation is fundamental to understand experience and education level required. • Average salaries for standard contracts are higher than for non-standard contracts. • Higher salaries are more likely for managers and chefs, but not for professionals. • Experience is more important than formal educational requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]