As an expatriate in a European country, chances are aplenty when you glance into the booming tourism sector - whether you're a student looking for a part-time job, or a graduate waiting for your big fat salary package.
Either way, let me get you excited by talking about the hospitality industry in Europe. The hospitality industry alone accounts for about 5% of the GDP of the EU, being the 3rd largest socio-economic activity being pursued in the region. Those are good figures on their own, but what's more interesting is the sheer amount of high-paying jobs on offer in this industry.
A quick intro for those living under rocks - hospitality industry entails all economic activities related to tourism, hotels, restaurants, bars, resorts, water/theme parks, and other recreational avenues with a strict focus on people. Naturally, to excel in such a job requires strong communication and social skills, or 'people skills' as they say.
Let's take a quick look at the seven best-paying jobs in the hospitality sector in Europe - ripe for the taking!
Bartending is a cool job for you if you love meeting lots of new people every day. Your job role would include taking orders and preparing various alcoholic/non-alcoholic drinks or drink combos for your customers, keeping tabs on customer preferences, and making recommendations and serving drinks and snacks.
The average hourly pay for bartenders in a country like Germany, where drinking is a celebration in the form of Oktoberfest, is a whooping €9.5 per hour! Some countries like Portugal are facing a shortage of bartenders, thanks to the booming tourism sector & you can stand to earn from €500 all the way up to €1600 a month with bartending.
A Travel Manager is an executive who generally works for a Travel agency to plan, organize, and execute a travel schedule or plan for travellers. They will arrange for personal or corporate travel and take care of every aspect of travel like travel plans, recommendations, tickets, transport, accommodation, food, and even some sight-seeing for that matter. Travel managers also take care of the documentation.
As a travel manager in Portugal, you can earn an average of €13 an hour. You can earn even more in the neighboring countries - with an average of €2.2k a month in Spain, and €1.3k to €3.8k a month in Italy.
Event Managers are in charge of planning, organizing, and managing large and small corporate and other kinds of events. If an event manager works for a particular venue such as an auditorium or a banquet hall, they are responsible for coordinating events/ functions held in that space.
They help with the logistics, the food, the arrival of various parties – and everything surrounding a particular event. Event managers earn a handsome hourly 14 EUR on average in Europe, depending, of course, on the country in question.
If your interest lies in culinary arts and you are an expert chef, this is the job for you. Executive chefs are in charge of the kitchen in restaurants, hotels, and the like. Their job role varies from overseeing the entire operation, hiring and training kitchen staff, planning and executing timed menus, concocting meal and drink combos, experimenting with new stuff to keep customers guessing, etc. The chef may also be responsible for inventory management of the kitchen, depending on the particular job profile.
In a country like Spain, an executive chef earns about 13 EUR hourly on average. In Portugal, you can expect to earn from 900 EUR (lowest) to 2,870 EUR (highest), including housing, transport and other benefits.
A Hotel General Manager, also known simply as Hotel Manager, is someone who is the head of operations of a hotel. They supervise the daily operations of the hotel, oversee the inventory, and also take care of the guests during their entire stay. A hotel manager often employs an operations manager to take care of daily business. It is a prestigious job across Europe.
A Hotel manager enjoys a monthly salary within a range of €2k and €7k in Spain. In Portugal you stand to earn about €4,900 per month, along with benefits like housing & transport!
This is yet another Hotel/Resort management job that pays well. Operations managers handle operations, as is evident from the name. Now, what does ‘handling operations’ entail? The day to day operations including cleaning, maintenance, handling guests, managing room allotments, overseeing hotel and restaurant inventory, etc. Operations managers often work in tandem with Hotel/Resort Managers and coordinate with other employees to supervise their operations as well.
Operations managers, on average, earn around 15 EUR hourly in Germany and about 14 EUR in countries such as Italy, while it is at about 8-10 EUR per hour in Portugal.
Casino Director or Manager is the boss of the operations of a casino. His/her primary responsibilities include the maintenance and effective management of the tables, gaming machines, and other stuff. A casino director also keeps tabs on the profits/losses occurring in the games, maintain notes on the visitors, reviews security footage, and does everything else to maintain an orderly atmosphere inside the casino so that the players and guests are in for a great experience. The average hourly salary of a casino director in Italy is about €21 per hour.
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