Tourism

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Tour de Force

A career in tourism could offer your ticket to see the world, and provide a chance for the world to see the best of Scotland too.

What does it involve?
‘Waking up to see long-tailed fishing boats scattered over the azure surface of the Gulf of Thailand is pretty good’, reflects Sophie McKenneth, who worked for diving business on Ko Panang – an island off the east coast of Thailand – for two years. ‘It certainly made a pleasant change from the frigid waters of the Moray Firth, which had been the view from my window when growing up. Unsurprisingly, I rarely regretted going away!’

While, unfortunately, not all jobs in the travel and tourism industry guarantee life near the sun-soaked seaside, it’s a line of work which certainly doesn’t require signing your life away to a dull and endless succession of 9 to 5 drudgery – the insane, not the mundane, is far more likely to be a regular feature of your day! Many people are drawn to an industry that boasts ‘the spice of life’ – variety – in spades.

For the sector includes a vast range of employment opportunities – anything from creating your own wildlife park, to operating as a ski instructor in the snow-bound Rockies, to being a fishing guide on the Mongolian plains. While, admittedly, not all of the jobs on offer are as glamorous or as exotic as these possibilities, there are still many more jobs on offer than working in a hotel or manning the local TIC.

The appeal of the industry
Once you’re involved in the world of tourism there is considerable room for manoeuvre, which is good for those who like change as well as useful in an era in which jobs for life seem to have been confined to history. As a result you can look forward to a wide array of experiences and the sector you start in is by no means the sector where you’re likely to end up.

The scale of the industry provides another good incentive to jump on board the travel and tourism bandwagon – it’s estimated to be worth over £4 billion a year in Scotland alone, and a staggering £270 billion worldwide. What’s more the sector continues to grow at a remarkable rate and is now the world’s fastest growing job-creating profession, so it’s an excellent time to get involved.

Types of people likely to do well
Despite these innumerable incentives it’s clearly not an industry that would suit everyone – in many areas long and anti-social hours are a regular part of life. Furthermore you need the right personality for the business and flexibility and adaptability are particularly important attributes to have. Perhaps most important of all, however, is the need to be able to get along well with other people, especially your customers themselves, even if they do sometimes have abrasive personalities or ridiculous demands.

Further qualifications
Having the right temperament is clearly one of the crucial factors involved in deciding whether the industry is right for you, but only first-hand experience of working with tourists will give you the chance to put this to the test.

If this initial taster doesn’t put you off, then it might be worth furthering your development by enrolling in a course. For while many of you might be pleased to finally be out of the classroom after all these years, further education will help you to raise the ceiling of what you can hope to achieve and increase your chances of progressing to a managerial role. After all, as hospitality expert David Cochrane observes, ‘in order to make it to the top of this extremely dynamic industry you’ll need to be aware of factors as diverse as global trends, business skills and marketing.’

Onwards and upwards – the HIT parade
While the business and managerial side to things might not be what drew you to tourism in the first place, they do offer the best areas to make an excellent living from – all the more so considering the buoyant state of the industry in Scotland. This is reflected not only by the vast revenue it generates, but also by the fact that its leading lights are willing to help out those with an ambition to succeed. Perhaps nowhere is this reflected more clearly than by Scotland’s Hospitality Industry Trust (HIT).

‘In order to ensure the industry continues to help itself’, reflects HIT Chief Executive David Cochrane, ‘we sponsor promising people from within the industry. We do this both by awarding bursaries which allow students to complete their studies and, perhaps most excitingly, through a recently launched scholarship programme. This sends ambitious people from within the industry on placements to learn from the best in the business.’

Despite having only been in existence for four years, the HIT scholarship scheme is growing at an impressive rate. ‘In our first year we sent only eight people on placements’, observes David, ‘yet this year the number was up to 191!’ In an effort to ensure that Scotland’s tourism industry continues to both expand and improve, HIT now sends successful applicants on placements both within Scotland and to places as exotic as Paris, Lausanne, Monte Carlo, Dubai and even to what is undoubtedly the daddy of all tourist attractions – Disneyland itself.

Far from being a Mickey Mouse idea those running HIT hope that such initiatives will not only inspire individuals working with tourists in Scotland, but also enhance the country’s tourist industry as a whole. With the help of projects like this Cochrane believes that by 2015 tourism should generate 50 per cent more revenue by 2015.

Such optimism is not unfounded either. After all both the Ryder Cup and the Commonwealth Games are soon to be hosted by Scotland, and the deluge of visitors for the London Olympics will undoubtedly have an impact north of the Border too.

For further information on courses and careers in tourism visit:

Springboard Scotland
www.springboarduk.org.uk

HIT
www.hitscotland.co.uk

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