Working in Tourism
Kyrgyz Turkish Manas University
A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to address a group of Students in the Tourism School of the Turkish-Kyrgyz Manas University.
They normally ask me to be a guest speaker once a year. I’m just one of a number of speakers from different companies working in tourism and the programme of guest speakers serves several useful purposes: it adds variety to the programme instead of relying on just the academic teaching staff; supplements the theory learned in a classroom setting with some material from practitioners who work in the real world; it gives students and potential employers a chance to see each other and weigh each other up.
For the record: The Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University was established in 1995, although classes only started in 1997. In its first year there were just 86 students taught by 31 academic staff and supported by 10 administrative personnel. By the start of the 2000/1 academic year there were 1100 students, 76 academic and 38 administrative staff. Now it has over 3500 students, (including those following postgraduates courses, and studying for their Doctorate), who study in the two main corpuses: one a rented building on Prospect Mira and the other is a modern, purpose built campus in the Djal suburb on the outskirts of the capital. With 325 Administrative staff and over 500 teaching staff, and over 2000 graduates to its credit, it is one of the largest institutes of Higher education in the country and is considered as one of the leading universities in the country.
It is organized into 8 faculties, 4 Higher Schools, (including offering courses in Tourism and Hotel Management), a community college, 2 institutes and 4 Research Centres. The 13 buildings also include some student accommodation, a number of assembly halls and conference halls, three libraries, dining halls and canteens and a sports complex. There are also well equipped laboratories and IT rooms.
The student body is active with various clubs and societies and undertakes charitable work.
Like most universities it is active in conducting conferences and seminars and publishes material on a wide range of topics.
The School of Tourism and Hotel Management commenced work a couple of years later, in 1999. They offer courses in Food and Beverage, (that is Catering); Hotel Management and Tourism Management – including work relating to both, work in tour agencies and as part of a tour operator, (for example as a guide.)
The school is a member of the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators.
Now, although we operate two hotels, (or rather one hotel and a guesthouse – technically, there is a difference but not everyone is aware of what it is), I am normally asked to speak to the Tourism Management group.
The university teaches mainly in Turkish and Kyrgyz, although Russian is widely used and there is the opportunity to learn other foreign languages; English; Russian and Chinese … and the tourism school also teaches German. Whenever I go, I have to deliver my talk in Russian, which is always a bit of a strain, and although in the early years I always used to take an interpreter with me, (just in case), we normally find that they are not needed.
So, this year I was asked to talk about: “the personal qualities and knowledge necessary for work in tourism and about the features of work in tourism,” and I was told that the class were a group of first year students who had not yet had any Practical experience or Work Placements, (Practica as it is called here). Now, this gave me a bit of a couple of problems … for a start, it seemed to me that it was in the wrong order … I would have started first of all with the main features of work in tourism: the fact that it is a service industry where we work with people and then move on to the question of what is needed to meet the requirements of the work.
Secondly, knowledge and personal qualities are only two of the essential elements, and I didn’t think we could deal with them properly without considering the other two: skills and experience. Job descriptions are normally couched in terms of the Knowledge, Skills and Experience necessary in order to fulfil the functions of the post, and then there is usually a catch all section outlining the personal qualities that an employee is looking for. (There is always a risk in such job descriptions that they will be bland and include catch all phrases like “honest” and “reliable” and although these are important, they are probably important for all jobs and, also, it is sometimes difficult to think of ways in which a student can demonstrate these qualities. Bur that is something I normally cover in a talk on writing a CV – see Become The Perfect Job Applicant.)
Of course, there was always the chance that the question of skills and experience were topics given to another guest speaker. So I decided that I had to design a talk which I could adapt and skim over what I had prepared if this was, indeed the case.
As always, I planned to begin with “Who am I and why am I here?” These always strikes me as important questions. Why should anyone listen to me? What do I know that they don’t? What’s more, everyone is different and what works for me may not be appropriate for them; they have to weigh up the advice that I have to offer and decide for themselves if it is good advice, valid and worth following. They have to be responsible for their own actions and believe in what they are doing; in short, they have to accept and “own” the advice. If they are prepared to accept the consequences then I have no problem if they choose to reject or ignore what I say. I, obviously, think I am right, but they are at the sharp end, dealing with the situation, the clients, the authorities, or whatever and they have to make own decisions in situ.
I normally follow that with a short section where I explain what I have asked to cover and what background information I have been given. This is a case of setting the groundwork, providing a framework and follows the principle of tell them three time: tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them … then ask them to repeat it. If they can, then you have done your job!
Then I decided to concentrate on the different jobs that are available in tourism … and for that I felt I needed a little bit of background. I don’t know what they’ve already learned, so I prepared a little bit on basic concepts, “what is a tourist?”, “what is a tour operator? … and how does it differ from being a travel agent?”, to be followed with a question about what sort of tourism there is in Kyrgyzstan, finally leading to the question of “what sort of jobs are available in tourism?”.
The idea was then to see if we can identify the common elements, (as I said, it’s working with people and providing a service). Now as the old English saying puts it, “there’s nowt so difficult as working with people”, so I thought I would look at how we sometimes have to work with difficult people. Why are they difficult?
This leads me into my one of my personal bête noirs, the saying that “the customer is always right“. I don’t believe this … I believe that they HAVE rights but when they lie or steal or … (I’ll let you fill that gap), then they are clearly not right. The other week we had some guests who left the hotel and went to the airport without checking out and without paying their bill. They were clearly not in the right.
For the record: we realised what was happening in time and had them stopped at the airport.
So, what rights does the client have? I decided to spend some time asking that question.
Now, having outlined what life is like working in tourism, I think I have enough material to draw some common threads about what sort of qualities, knowledge skills and experience, people working in the industry are likely to need. There is another point to bear in mind, the difference between “general” and “specific” knowledge, skills and experience. By “general” I mean that this is not necessarily connected with tourism but can be applied in a tourism context, whereas by the term “specific” I am referring to something that is directly connected to, arises out of and is applied in a tourism context.
All four of these elements are important, and there is always a problem of striking the right balance between theory and practice, and this is where experience is so valuable.
These students, of course, are young and just starting on their course of study, so don’t have much experience – I was told they didn’t have any. Although this is indeed possible, I am not sure that it is true. Playing in a football team means having to be able to work with others, and that can be applied in a tourism context. The other day, for example, I read an interesting article about what Hotel Managers can learn from a Football Coach in terms of managing and inspiring their staff …
More to the point, if any the students have been a “tourist”, then they have experience that they can draw on … what were they hoping to gain from their holiday?; what were their expectations?; what made the experience a good one?; what was unsatisfactory?
Now, I know that I had prepared too much to fill the time available, (usually between an hour and ninety minutes), especially as I was intending to ask them questions rather than just lecture them – I prefer the Socratic method. I also wanted to tell a few stories to give practical examples to underline what I was going to say, and I also wanted to leave plenty of time for discussion, or a question and answer session. Manas students are not normally shy and don’t hold back, so I was expecting some useful interaction. As a result, I knew that I was going to have to choose which bits to linger over and develop and which bits to skim over and omit.
After all, that was one of the main points I was trying to make: be flexible; be adaptable … and, as far as I was concerned, the important thing wasn’t to give them all the answers – there aren’t any – but to get them thinking. I hope I was able to do that.
For anyone who is interested, here are the powerpoint presentation I prepared, (in English), and a pdf file for printing handouts:
For the record: more information about the University is available on their website.
Bishkek