The Presence of Expatriate Employees in the Tourism Sector: A Threat or Not? Relationships with Job Insecurity, Productivity Loss, and Intention to Work

The growing reliance on expatriate labour in the tourism sector has intensified concerns regarding its implications for local employees’ work-related outcomes. This study examines how tourism employees’ perceptions of realistic threats arising from expatriate employment affect their job insecurity, productivity loss, and intention to work. Using a quantitative research design, data were collected from 418 employees working in tourism enterprises through convenience sampling. The results indicate that perceived realistic threats significantly increase job insecurity and productivity loss. Job insecurity, in turn, positively affects productivity loss and negatively affects intention to work, although its explanatory power for work intention remains limited. Neither realistic threats nor productivity loss directly influence intention to work. Mediation analysis demonstrates that job insecurity indirectly links realistic threats to intention to work, while no moderating effect is supported. The study contributes by providing empirical evidence on how job insecurity functions as a key psychological mechanism within the Conservation of Resources framework in the context of expatriate–local workforce dynamics in the tourism sector. Practically, the findings underscore the importance of addressing job insecurity perceptions to sustain employee motivation and performance in a sector characterised by seasonal and competitive employment conditions.