Hospitality & Tourism job market in the Gulf

How many Hospitality & Tourism jobs are open across the Gulf, how many are new, who is hiring and which skills they want. Counted daily from employer career pages and job boards.

Browse Hospitality & Tourism jobs

Jobs open now

5,146

UAE 2,186, Saudi Arabia 1,520, Qatar 783

New jobs, last 30 days

4,753

Hiring trend vs the previous 30 days: +15%

Jobs closed, last 30 days

2,907

Filled, expired or taken down by the employer

Typical time a job stays open

27 days

Median, from posting to closing, 1,490 closed jobs

JobXDubai Hiring Index

New job postings each week from a fixed group of employers, against the four weeks from 3 August 2026 (= 100). The group never changes, so the index only moves when those employers hire more or less, never because we add a source.

Latest complete week

120

+27 points on four weeks before

100
3 Aug10 Aug17 Aug24 Aug31 Aug7 Sept14 Sept21 Sept28 Sept

New and closed jobs, week by week

Complete weeks only, for employers we were already tracking at the start, so a new source never looks like a hiring spike.

27 Jul
3 Aug
10 Aug
17 Aug
24 Aug
31 Aug
7 Sept
14 Sept
21 Sept
28 Sept
New jobs Closed jobs

Employers stepping up, and slowing down

New jobs in the last 30 days compared with the 30 days before, for employers we have tracked throughout. Recruitment agencies and job boards are left out.

Posting more

  • Rotana Hotels95 155
  • W Hotels8 28
  • Fairmont Hotels & Resorts0 17
  • Hilton30 43
  • Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts7 18

Posting less

  • IHG Hotels & Resorts151 85
  • Kerzner International116 66
  • Jumeirah Group36 31

Skills employers ask for

The skills named most often in new adverts over the last 30 days. General soft skills are left out.

  1. 1Guest service670
  2. 2Inventory management494
  3. 3Food preparation483
  4. 4Food safety474
  5. 5Guest relations306
  6. 6Guest services288
  7. 7Food and beverage service283
  8. 8HACCP266
  9. 9Safety procedures245
  10. 10Hospitality244
  11. 11Cash handling242
  12. 12Portion control231
  13. 13Menu knowledge208
  14. 14Menu development206
  15. 15Quality control202

Rising fastest

Like-for-like change vs the previous 30 days, on at least 30 adverts.

  • Food preparation+66%
  • Food safety and sanitation+59%
  • Food safety+46%
  • Portion control+44%
  • Kitchen operations+41%
  • Guest service+36%
  • HACCP+32%
  • Quality control+30%
  • Menu knowledge+30%
  • Mise en place+27%

What employers ask for, and what CVs show

For each field: the skills named most in new adverts, and how often CVs uploaded to JobXDubai mention them (3,186 anonymous CVs). A CV mentions far more skills than an advert lists, so compare down each column, not across.

Hospitality & Tourism

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Guest service14%24%
Inventory management10%14%
Food preparation10%12%
Food safety10%33%
Guest relations6%21%
Guest services6%6%

4,753 adverts, 156 CVs

Where competition for jobs is highest

Each field's share of the CVs uploaded to JobXDubai against its share of new jobs. Above 1 means more job seekers than openings, relative to other fields. Our CVs are a sample, so read this as a comparison between fields, not a count of applicants.

FieldShare of CVsShare of new jobsCompetition
Engineering & Technology39%17%2.4x
Finance & Accounting12%6%2.0x
Marketing & Communications7%3%2.0x
Human Resources5%3%1.7x
Sales & Business Development15%12%1.3x
Healthcare & Medical2%3%0.7x
Construction & Engineering6%12%0.5x
Operations & Logistics4%8%0.4x
Hospitality & Tourism6%18%0.4x

What employers require

From the requirements in 5,146 open adverts. The typical ask is the median.

26%

ask for a degree

2

years of experience, typical ask

1%

ask for a driving licence

1%

require Arabic

Advertised pay, as employers state it

Only adverts where the employer published a salary (292 open jobs). Typical (median) monthly range, in AED, for fields with at least 30 such adverts.

FieldTypical advertised rangeAdverts
Hospitality & TourismAED 4k to 6.5k a month292

Adverts that state pay lean towards some employers and roles, so this is what advertised jobs offer, not what everyone earns.

What open jobs pay: our estimate

Most Gulf adverts don't state a salary, so these bands use our own estimate for each open job (the employer's figure when they give one). Individual estimates can be well off, so read this as the shape of the market, not a salary guide.

Open jobs by estimated monthly pay

  • Under AED 5k37%
  • AED 5k to 10k33%
  • AED 10k to 20k23%
  • AED 20k to 35k3%
  • AED 35k and above4%

Estimate. 5,054 of 5,146 open jobs have a pay figure.

Adverts that state the pay

6%

Of jobs open now, the share where the employer published a salary. This one is a count, not an estimate.

Who the jobs are for

New jobs open to entry-level and junior candidates

44%

Last 30 days. The 30 days before: 38% (up 6 points).

New jobs reserved for GCC nationals

3%

Adverts that say the role is for Emirati, Saudi or other GCC nationals only. Last 30 days.

Most active employers

By new jobs posted in the last 30 days.

Where the new jobs are

New jobs in the last 30 days, by city.

Use this data

Journalists, researchers and bloggers are welcome to quote, embed and chart these numbers. Please credit JobXDubai with a link to this page.

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JobXDubai, "Hospitality & Tourism job market pulse", data as of 8 October 2026. https://jobxdubai.com/job-market/hospitality-and-tourism
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Source: <a href="https://jobxdubai.com/job-market/hospitality-and-tourism">JobXDubai Hospitality &amp; Tourism job market pulse</a> (data as of 8 October 2026)

Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit "JobXDubai" with a link to jobxdubai.com/job-market/hospitality-and-tourism.

How we count

  • Jobs open now are live listings on JobXDubai: collected daily from employer career pages and job boards, checked for dead links, with duplicates removed.
  • A new job is a listing we first saw within 14 days of its posting date, so an employer's backlog of old adverts never counts as fresh hiring.
  • Trends compare like with like: only employers we were already tracking in that country before the period began. When we add a new source, its jobs count as open jobs but not as growth.
  • We only show a percentage change on a big enough base: at least 300 new jobs in the earlier period (30 for a single field or skill, 15 for an employer). Below that, small numbers swing too much to mean anything.
  • Pay bands are estimates. Most adverts don't state pay, so we estimate it per job. The share of adverts stating pay is an exact count.
  • The Hiring Index counts new postings each week from a fixed group of employers we already tracked before its base period, against the average of its four base weeks (= 100). A field gets its own index once it averaged at least 30 new jobs a week in the base period.
  • Requirements come from the requirements written in each open advert (years, degrees, licences, credentials, languages). Spellings of the same credential are merged.
  • Advertised pay uses only salaries the employer published, never our estimates, and only where at least 30 adverts in a field state one.
  • CV figures come from CVs uploaded to JobXDubai, including free CV checks, stored as anonymous statistics: the skills a CV mentions and a likely field. We never keep or publish the CVs themselves.
  • Time open runs from posting to closing. It leaves out jobs from feeds where we retire adverts ourselves after a fixed age, which would otherwise make every field look the same.
  • Tracking began UAE: July 2026, Oman: July 2026, Saudi Arabia: July 2026. Updated 8 October 2026.

Job market by role: hiring data for the 100 most common jobs, from accountants to sous chefs. Who is hiring: every employer with 10 or more open jobs.