Training

Travel education: Moving to the next level

With India fast emerging as a dream destination for many around the world, the country's travel trade has started to focus on specialised travel professionals to cater to the needs of the burgeoning traffic. Express TravelWorld lists out few inherent aspects of travel education in the country.

As an industry, the bearing of tourism is sundry. It can influence a nation in various facets, be it economy, employment, culture, infrastructure, awareness, creation etc. Significant among all these facets is the capability of tourism in generating large scale employment opportunities.

Tourism employs over 200 million people worldwide or one in every nine workers. For every million rupees of investment 13 jobs are created in manufacturing industries, 45 jobs in agriculture and 89 jobs in hotels and restaurants. Tourism is therefore considered an important area for intensive development for all governments. The Asian continent is witnessing a surge of tourists from around the world as it is now that most Asian countries have become premium destinations.

India too is fast becoming one of the most sought after destinations. But while the country has had an 'unsophisticated' awakening, there is a lot left to be desired, be it infrastructure development, policy making, land availability, bureaucratic hurdles, or basic tourist facilities. While tourism is considered to be a huge employment generator in India, concrete travel and tourism education programmes are still to find a stronghold.

According to Kamal Hingorani, vice president and head, Kuoni Academy of Travel, "When you look at the size of the industry in the country, I would say that travel education is far from where it has to be. We need many professionals in the trade because of the growth pattern which the country is witnessing in tourism. The common perception among students and parents is that a training course to pursue a career in travel and tourism is not priority. They feel that just being street smart and having good communication skills is enough to get into the travel profession, which is not entirely true. The travel industry necessarily has to build more awareness about the profession."

It is only now that there has been an increase in travel and tourism institutes being set up to cater to the need for the excess demand from the trade. Hospitality education has seen a more streamlined growth in terms of number of institutes as well as quality syllabus and facilities.

According to the trade, the reason for the country now gearing up for reputable travel and tourism institutes is because tourism has many components attached to it which is intricately associated with many trades and industries that range from airlines to transportation; restaurants to retail; hotels and other accommodation to commercial development. Says Vishnuvardhan Bhat, a Bangalore based trade consultant, "There is no accepted definition of what constitutes the industry, nor any definition of what runs the risk of either overstating or understating economic activity. So it took a while for the industry to put a fix on what will ideally constitute a travel and tourism syllabus. The stream is now evolving and maturing. A couple of good institutes have come to the fore and they are beckoning better times for the travel and tourism industry, but what is required is a larger number of quality institutes and a well-informed student."

The evolution of travel industry across the world has necessitated the need for skilled travel professionals. "Earlier a travel counsellor only had to be aware of world geography; today he or she needs to be well-equipped with indepth destination knowledge, information on varied cultures, advanced ticketing systems, customer relationship management to skillfully manage all the aspects of the trade. I do agree that the awareness has seeped in late, but it is better late than never," says Jagdish Upadhyay, HOD, RK Education Society for Travel and Tourism.

Today as more institutes offer travel and tourism management courses in form of diploma and degree, the industry is beginning to get a more professional outlook. Institutes across are offering contemporary courses with an international perspective and indepth approach. But Hingorani does raise a crucial point, "The number of institutes that offer travel and tourism training are just a fraction of what we need. And in most of the institutes, the training provided is not current, it is very historical and bookish. I would say that about 98 per cent of what is being taught to the students is a waste and does not apply in actual working of the travel profession. Even IATA has not been able to do much and they just do not want to change."

Conclusion

The tourism industry is complex and interlocking. But in the present context, the government can use this industry for building up a healthy balance of payment and providing livelihood to millions of unemployed. Growth in tourism would also bestow additional advantages by way of promoting international understanding and national integration.

It is heartening to see that there has been an increased recognition of the importance of tourism and of the need to make a quantum jump to exploit the full potential of this strategic industry, professionally. In the country, there are some institutions, which are streamlining the integral aspects of the trade into their syllabus and showing the way to a specialised manner of working. But the main necessity is to build awareness and also have institutions follow a curriculum which is current. This becomes even more pertinent considering that now the world is not just watching the country, but also experiencing it.