The World Can Be Your Stage With Tourism And Hospitality Management

India proudly celebrates her diversity and the varied richness of its culture. Atithi devo bhava has been the creed of Indians since time immemorial. People from all over the world visit India to experience the magical splendor of one of the world’s oldest civilizations and to soak themselves in its mesmerizing beauty and warm hospitality.

Tourism and Hospitality is thus a growing industry in India. Tourism involves traveling to a different place and staying at the new destination. The planning and arrangement is often made in advance by experts in the field. The tourists need to be taken care of and entertained well. Hospitality and Tourism sectors thus go hand in hand.

A management course in Tourism and Hospitality includes learning the basics of both the sectors. It grooms the individual to handle all the jobs and issues related to the industry. The course includes subjects such as Sales and Marketing, Accounting and Financial Management, Human Resource Management, Hotel and Catering Law, Hotel Reservations, Operations Management, Public Relations, Customer Service, Entrepreneurship Development, Strategy, and Quantitative Management and Computers, with a special focus on Tourism Studies, including Tour Planning and Operation, Holiday Consulting and Foreign Exchange Management for tourists.

Training in Tourism and Hospitality Management can also provide countless job opportunities in a number of related fields. The aviation industry can absorb trained people from the industry for various ground-level jobs in the lobby or reservations department or as counter staff. In-flight jobs like that of stewards are also open. Opportunities are also available in the Cruise industry where taking care of the guests on the cruise, in the best possible manner, is of prime importance.

Hotels, restaurants, resorts and other food chains are booming and require the services of individuals trained in Tourism and Hospitality Management in all departments like front office, catering, housekeeping, operations and so on. Working with an event management company can also be a career choice wherein planning and organizing various events is the job profile.

Another interesting opening is that of a travel consultant or advisor who guides clients and updates them about various travel destinations and services, and handles the required arrangements. One can also become a tour planner or tour operator and help organize tours to the myriad tourist destinations and be in-charge of the entire itinerary and comfort of the tourists.

There are several other jobs in the tourism department such as that of an Information Assistant. Openings in amusement parks, country clubs and some unconventional opportunities like handling of visas and passports of international tourists are also to be found.

Tourism and Hospitality Management has undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The minimum eligibility criterion at the undergraduate level is passing class XII. However, for postgraduate programs, graduation from a recognized university is mandatory.

People looking to work in this industry need a certain set of skills to be successful. They need to be friendly and extroverted since the job involves constant interaction with new people every day. Well-groomed individuals with a charming personality can succeed in the industry. One also needs to be a team worker with good organizational abilities, and develop expertise in multi tasking. Dynamism, energy, and passion for diverse new things are a must. Evaluation skills, problem solving and ingenuity too are needed along with a warm, polite and customer centric approach.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the Travel and Tourism industry is one of the biggest and fastest-developing industries globally, expected to support 328 million jobs, or 10 percent work personnel in the world, by 2022.

In India, the Travel and Tourism sector currently employs 49 million individuals and this is expected to reach 58 million by 2020. The hospitality sector is USD 23 billion business presently and projected to grow to USD 36 billion by 2018.

With the Indian Government too taking initiatives to promote tourism and hospitality, the industry is bound to grow and create many more job opportunities. With globalization being the trend today, career opportunities in this field are not confined only to the country but open around the world for those aspiring to take the leap.