Travel and Hospitality Hiring Turns More Structured as 63% Employers Plan Expansion and NEC Stands at 5.1% in HY1 FY2026–27: TeamLease Staffing Report

• As per the report, workforce demand is led by sales at 53%, followed by business continuity at 49% and finance at 36%, alongside operational and service roles.

• Indore, Kochi and Lucknow record expansion intent of 20%, 18% and 15%, reflecting rising regional demand alongside improved connectivity and stronger travel led consumption patterns.

Bengaluru, 25th May 2026: Hiring across India’s travel and hospitality sector is entering a more calibrated phase, with Net Employment Change (NEC) at 5.1% for HY1 FY2026–27, according to the Employment Outlook Report by TeamLease Services. While 63% of employers plan workforce expansion, 20% expect no change and 17% anticipate reductions, signalling a measured approach to growth.

This moderation reflects evolving workforce strategies that are increasingly aligned with demand patterns across the sector. Growth continues to be driven by domestic leisure travel, expansion into Tier 2 and Tier 3 destinations, and rising activity in business travel, MICE, and religious tourism. The long-term outlook remains strong, with the sector’s GDP contribution projected to rise from 256 billion dollars in CY24 to 523 billion dollars by CY34, supporting nearly 63 million jobs.

At a functional level, organisations are prioritising hiring for roles that directly influence customer acquisition and service delivery. Expansion intent stands at 53% in sales and marketing, followed by 49% in business continuity and 36% in finance. This distribution reflects a growing emphasis on customer engagement, digital platforms and financial oversight as travel and hospitality businesses scale across channels. Workforce additions are also expected across hotel operations, food and beverage services, event management, travel coordination and wellness tourism roles, reinforcing a service-led hiring approach.

Geographically, Indore, Kochi and Lucknow emerge as key sweet spots in the travel and hospitality sector, recording expansion intent of 20%, 18% and 15% respectively. The sector also reflects a projected salary increment of 9.2% overall. This underscores rising demand across regional markets, supported by improved connectivity, higher disposable incomes and sustained growth in business and leisure travel. Emerging tourism clusters and pilgrimage-linked destinations are further complementing metro-led hospitality hubs, enabling more distributed employment growth across the country.

Commenting on the findings, Balasubramanian A, Senior Vice President, TeamLease Services, said, “While the 5.1% Net Employment Change reflects a moderation from the previous half year, it is more accurately a phase of stabilisation within a structurally expanding sector. Demand is increasingly being shaped by infrastructure-led tourism development and schemes such as Swadesh Darshan 2.0 and PM GatiShakti, alongside rising MICE and religious travel flows. This is translating into more disciplined, demand-linked hiring rather than anticipatory workforce expansion across the ecosystem.”

Overall, the hiring outlook reflects a sector that is evolving towards greater efficiency and sharper alignment between demand visibility and workforce planning. Rather than broad based expansion, organisations are prioritising agility in deployment and responsiveness to shifting travel patterns. This transition signals a more mature phase of growth where operational readiness, service consistency, and structured capacity management will define how employment scales across the travel and hospitality ecosystem in the coming cycles.

These insights are based on a survey of 1,268 employers across 23 industries and 20 cities, conducted between November 2025 and January 2026.