With an increasing influx of tourists in recent years, which consequently led to a mushrooming of hotels, the need for professionalism in this service industry is being felt more than ever before.
Bearing this in mind, a tourism department-approved hotel management programme, under the auspices of the Jacob and Elysium Foundation, based in Switzerland, is awaiting applications from interested Bhutanese in the “hospitality industry”. “We agreed to sponsor this program because we feel it’s important for Bhutan, particularly, at a time when the country is seeing an increasing number of tourists,” said program director, Hans J Keller. “And tourists demand professionalism in this industry.”
The whole programme, estimated to cost about Nu 95 million (US$ 240,000), will take in only 25 students for the eight-month course spread over three years. The programme will be free for a select 25.
The courses will be conducted during the off-tourist season, between July-August 2008, January-February 2009 and January-February 2010.
So far, the foundation has received more than 60 applications and still counting. The selection process, which begins from March 15, will be based on English language and IT proficiency tests. Besides that, students should have completed Class XII and be employed in the hospitality industry.
In the first course, owners and managing directors of about six or seven hotels will make presentations to the students to give them an insight into how hotels operate.
As the course picks up, professors and teachers from abroad will be invited to share their knowledge in their specialised fields.
The Royal Institute of Management lecturers and tourism department officials will be offered an opportunity to work along with foreign professors, so they can conduct similar courses in future.
“These course are like any other normal hotel education and diploma programmes acceptable around the world,” said Mr Hans. Students completing the eight-month course will be awarded a diploma in hotel management from the Swiss University HWZ in Zurich and a parallel certificate from RIM.
The first hotel management programme will begin from July at RIM in Thimphu.
Source: Kuenselonline
