Monday, September 6, 2010

Be at the Helm of Canada’s Tourism Industry in Hospitality and Tourism Administration

Impressive numbers such as revenue in excess of $61.4-billion from 60,000 different companies that employ more than 1.66-million Canadians, could only come from one industry. Tourism. It is Canada’s second largest employment sector and the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council suggests that between 2006 and 2015, 290,690 new jobs will be created. Be at the top of the pay scale within this industry as a professional in Hospitality and Tourism Administration.

A three-year offering at Centennial College, prepares you for an exciting profession in this field. To apply, applicants must present at minimum an Ontario Secondary School Diploma or equivalent or be 19 years of age or older. They must also possess compulsory English 12C or U or skills assessment, or equivalent. The Hospitality and Tourism Administration program focuses on a very wide-range of business courses in marketing, human resources, industry operations and finance. However, these courses are taught in a manner that directly reflects the entire hospitality and tourism field. Specific course titles include: World Geographic Patterns, Introduction to Hospitality Accounting, Dimensions of Tourism, Hospitality and Tourism Marketing, Front Office Operations, Meeting and Convention Management, Hospitality Industry Issues and many, many more. Students supplement in-class training with practice at the college’s full-service hospitality management centre, on-site conference centre and state-of-the-art computer labs. Access to these practice facilities also readies students for their four-day per week, 15-week industry internship in the final semester of the Hospitality and Tourism Admin program. The individualized industry internship experience will provide a practical foundation for your career. Many students continue on as full-time employees at their internship placements.

So where exactly can you find employment upon program graduation? Graduates of Centennial College are prepared to work in tourism and hospitality areas such as: hotel and restaurant general management, human resources management, sales and marketing management, convention services coordination and tour coordination. This wide range of areas makes it easy to find your niche but also change career paths if you choose to. Let’s take a look at what a couple of the options entail.

A competent general manager is essential to the success of any hotel. Although the job descriptions vary, certain requirements are similar across the board. Hotel managers are often in charge of leading hotel personnel and managers of various departments. They also act as liaisons between hotel guests and staff and may be called on to solve disputes. Lastly, hotel managers may oversee the daily fiscal workings of the facility. A good hotel manager must be comfortable working with numbers, managing various spreadsheets and budgets for different departments, and making important fiscal decisions. Another option in Hospitality and Tourism Administration is a hotel marketing manager. This person’s job is to finds creative ways to propel a hotel into the public realm to boost sales and productivity. To do this, he or she works with the hotel’s advertising and sales managers to promote services and amenities. Also, marketing managers learn what travelers want and estimate the cost of including those services.

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