BANGOR (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Leaders of Maine's hospitality industry are gathering to talk about the current state and future of the industry.
The two-day Maine Hospitality Summit at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor is the second summit arranged by Hospitality Maine, a trade association that united the Maine Restaurant Association and the Maine Innkeepers Association last year. Approximately 230 people are expected to attend the summit.
A major focus of the summit is on how to combat a growing worker shortage.
Gregory Douglas, the Director of Government Affairs for Hospitality Maine says, "The biggest challenge the hospitality industry is facing is the biggest challenge every other industry is facing. And that is employees."
The President and CEO of Hospitality Maine, Steve Hewins, says, "The biggest issue by far is workforce. Workforce development, and workforce retention."
Over the last decade, Maine's hospitality industry has grown by leaps and bounds, causing workforce shortages so severe, that those who run Maine's hotels, inns and restaurants have had to scramble to find any workers they can.
Hewins says, "We're now in our tenth straight year of record growth for Maine's restaurants and hotels, and that has no signs of abating."
The demand for workers is at every level of the industry.
Douglas says, "I have people calling me looking for restaurant managers or an executive chef. There's no level where there's not a shortage of people."
One way leaders plan to tackle the worker shortage is through a new apprenticeship program.
Hewins says, "We created this new program called the Hospitality Maine Apprenticeship Program. It's groundbreaking! Basically, we're working with the Maine DOL, the Maine Community College System and all of our members to create jobs for students that want to enter the industry while at the same time they can take classes to get their culinary arts apprenticeship or hospitality services apprenticeship."
The general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn, Jessica Donovan, says, "There's a lot of opportunities that don't require a four- to six-year degree for young folks, but they don't necessarily think of hospitality as a career path necessarily."
Ultimately, changing the way the industry is perceived and getting people into the door of the hospitality industry is the way we'll get more people through the doors of Maine inns and restaurants.