This paper presents a characterization of the hotel industry labor market in
Cartagena and the main Colombian metropolitan areas, and the returns on
education and experience applying Mincer’s wage equations and Heckman
correction. The results indicate low educational level from workers in this sector
and the labor indicators differ from the tourism sector labor indicators, women
received lower wages than men, which was consistent to the literature reviewed,
and Cali and Medellin were the cities with the highest informality levels in the
hospitality sector, while Cartagena presented the lowest one.