Alabama will spend $1 million, to prepare as many as 2,000 students to go to work in the hospitality industry; that funding was recently announced by Governor Kay Ivey during a tourism conference on the Gulf Coast where lodging companies, restaurants and attractions are seeing record numbers of visitors, yet are often struggling to find a sufficient number of employees.

The state’s tourism agency stated that leaders requested the money because of a lack of new people entering the workforce since COVID outbreaks began two years ago.

  The funds will allow students to train online through the state’s 24-campus two-year college system, at more than 130 locations across Alabama – making that non-credit program accessible to virtually all citizens age 16 and older.

Tourists spend an around $16.8 billion annually in Alabama’s leisure and hospitality industry – which employs more than 200,000 people.

(ABC3340/www.abc3340.com)