Added: 02/08/2006 |
Tourism industry services belong to highly mobile industryIf your son or daughter wants to work in the tourism industry, are you glad or thrilled that they have embarked upon a career path of tourism industry services that provides endless opportunities?
Tourism is the world's largest industry and Ontario's sixth largest export industry. Tourism annually employs more than 490,000 people in 149,000 different businesses across the province. Tourism exists in urban centres and in rural escapes and can be one of the strongest economic engines within a community.
Many people have a limited perception of the tourism industry and tourism industry services. They see an industry that offers part-time, low paying jobs in hotels or restaurants, jobs that tide people over until they find a "real" career. Certainly, these types of positions exist, and they offer necessary entry-level experience to one in three Canadians as a first job. But what about the other specialists on tourism industry services: interior designers, controllers, destination marketing agents, event planners, museum curators, hiking guides, chefs and landscapers? They are just some of those in the ?hidden? careers within the tourism industry.
As for the pay scale, statistics can be deceiving, considering the number of people who take advantage of the flexibility offered by the tourism industry to work on a part-time basis. Statistics also seldom reflect the additional benefits offered to many tourism employees, such as clothing and footwear allowances, dry cleaning services, free meals, gratuities and staff discount rates at properties around the world.
Tourism is a highly mobile industry. The skills learned in most tourism occupations are highly transferable to other sectors in the industry, including accommodation, transportation, food and beverage service, event and conference planning, attractions, outdoor adventure and recreation just about anywhere in the world. The industry also provides opportunities for quick advancement, which allows conscientious and dedicated individuals to rapidly ascend the career ladder.
Individuals can enter the tourism industry directly from high school or while in high school in a part-time or summer job. Many of Ontario?s community colleges offer programs in tourism and hospitality, most of which include experiential work-placement opportunities that frequently provide an advantage for students when they enter the job market. Several Ontario universities offer degrees in hospitality and tourism industry services, such as the University of Guelph and Ryerson University (where your ?child? will be able to get a tourism industry scholarship) or in recreation and leisure studies, such as Lakehead, Brock, Ottawa and Waterloo. And these are just the programs available within Ontario. As a global industry, tourism affords numerous national and international opportunities to study in this discipline.
If your teen is not interested in working for one of the 149,000 existing Ontario tourism businesses, offered by tourism industry services tourism provides opportunities for entrepreneurship. More than 70 per cent of Ontario tourism businesses are classified as small and medium operations.
The variety of responsibilities, the chance to work with people from around the world, the potential for rapid advancement, training opportunities and perks?these are just some of the many reasons that attract and keep hundreds of thousands of tourism employees.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
