Strategie di gestione delle risorse umane nel settore turistico: sfide, competenze ed evidenze empiriche sulla performance

The present article examines the structural characteristics of the tourism sector, emphasising its marked entrepreneurial fragmentation, high workforce turnover, and the persistent challenges associated with the adoption of advanced human resource management practices. It provides an assessment of current and projected skill requirements, illustrating how these needs differ across international and Italian contexts and how they are shaped by organisational size and culture. Recognising the increasing strategic relevance of human capital for the competitiveness of Hospitality & Tourism (H&T) firms, the article delineates the core components of talent management—namely acquisition, development, and retention—and identifies the principal determinants of these processes as reported in the extant literature. The discussion further elaborates on the distinction between in-role and extra-role performance, considering the influence of key predictors such as job security, role clarity, and empowering leadership. Empirical evidence from Hai and Park (2024) demonstrates that high-performance human resource practices (HPHRP) exert differentiated effects on these two dimensions of performance, thereby highlighting the importance of a strategically targeted allocation of organisational resources. Overall, the analysis suggests that an integrated and sustainable approach to human resource management constitutes a critical lever for enhancing firm-level competitiveness within the tourism industry, particularly in view of the sector’s rapid technological and social transformation.