5.39. Following the endorsement in March 2008 of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) by the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the development of a set of ISCO-08 “thematic groupings” or “views” for certain groups of occupations was proposed. Application of thematic views is a standard alternative means of aggregating occupational data classified at the 4‑digit level of ISCO, such as the kinds of goods or services produced or the field of knowledge concerned. When needed, and in order to satisfy key analytical and policy requirements, themathic view should aggregate occupational data independently of skill level, the overriding criterion used to organize occupations into groups in ISCO.
5.40. Tourism has been proposed as one of the thematic groupings. Others include agriculture, construction, education, health and information and communications technology.
5.41. In order that the concept of “tourism occupations”, may be defined it is therefore especially important to clearly identify the purpose of doing so. Key purposes might include the following:
a) To measure the total number of persons employed in tourism industries, name the occupations, and measure the numbers and characteristics of those employed in those occupations;
b) To identify and measure skill shortages and training requirements which need to be addressed to facilitate the development of tourism.
Users of data based on tourism occupations, e.g., on the number of employed persons, should be aware that the information is debatable when these occupations serve both tourists and non‑tourists.
5.42. An issue that remains to be discussed is whether all or only a subset of the identified occupations are of interest.
5.43. As regards the availability of internationally comparable statistics on tourism‑related occupations which could become available in the medium term, ILO and UNWTO understand that creating a predefined grouping of occupations for tourism is not a straightforward task. Occupations could be selected in the short term based on an analysis of ISCO definitions. This approach would be partially intuitive, however, unless occupational data to support the selection process were available (see also Chapter VII).