Amber Crofts, Canada

VICTORIA, B.C.--- On a recent October day if you had gone to the 5th floor of 800 Johnson Street in Victoria on Canada's Pacific coast, you would have found Amber Crofts working on contact data on the leaders of British Columbia's Aboriginal tourism industry for the province's Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts.

The information is used when the Ministry plans
events and needs to know the appropriate people to invite or involve.

"We have about 200 Aboriginal owned-and-operated businesses and we are working to built upon that with educational sessions and training, and offering resources for Aboriginal entrepreneurs," said Crofts, who is a Tourism Development Officer for the Ministry.

Those 200 or so businesses range from adventure attractions on the coast to North America's first Aboriginal owned and managed winery, the NK'Mip Cellars Winery in the interior of the British Columbia, a project of members of the Osoyoos Indian Band that produces Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Still in her 20s, Crofts has focused on a career in
tourism as a tool for community development since she was a teenager.

In secondary school in Quesnel, British Columbia, she was involved for two years in the Canada program of the GTTP, the Canadian Academy of Travel & Tourism.

"It was one of my favorite classes," said Crofts.

" The focus was around career planning and getting us thinking about about where we could see ourselves in the tourism industry," said Crofts.

"What I liked best about it was that it was based on experiential learning, where you could actually get into the field, do work terms or job shadowing and actually meet with industry people and get a real feel for the industry instead of just reading about it or presenting about it in the classroom," said Crofts.

Her academic training includes a Bachelor of Tourism Management from Malespina University College, which is essentially a business administration degree with a specialization in
tourism, said Crofts.

Her field experience, acquired before, during and
after university, revolved around her hometown of Quesnel, where the timber industry is the main employer, where other industries are also needed, and where tourism is a natural option and fitted her interest in economic development and tourism.

Crofts's curriculum vitae includes work at the
Cottonwood House Historic Site, which is operated by the Quesnel area school district and functions as a student-training center in tourism as well as vehicle for expanding the appeal of the Quesnel area as a visitor destination. (For an example of work by Travel & Tourism students at Quesnel Secondary School click here)

She learned about the lodging business by working for the two bed-and-breakfasts in nearby Barkerville Historic Town.

She developed a walking tour for Quesnel based on the life and work of Chow Dong Hoy, who immigrated from China in 1902 and built both a thriving store which made him rich and a photography business which has kept his name alive as a recorder of the ordinary lives of Chinese, Caucasians and Aboriginal people.

Before joining the Ministry in 2007 she managed the Quesnel Visitor Information Center.

Crofts would like to see more involvement by members of the Travel & Tourism Industry in education.

"There needs to be an increased collaboration between educational institutions and industry stake holders and people doing the hiring, like HR departments," said Crofts.

There is also a need for more internships, especially paid internships, said Crofts.

And university graduates with business-related degrees in tourism also have a challenge: educating industry leaders about the value of what are relatively new degree programs.

"They haven't really wrapped their heads around that idea," said Crofts.

Paul O’Sullivan, Ireland

KILLARNEY--- If you visit southwest Ireland’s lakes, beaches and mountains of County Kerry you easily might find yourself staying at The Malton, a four-star hotel in the center of Killarney. There also is a 90 percent or so chance that you’ll run into Paul O’Sullivan, the 33-year old deputy general manager keeping an eye on your stay.

O’Sullivan is a product of how the Irish educational system exposes teenagers to the Travel & Tourism industry and also of a thorough training by the Irish hotel industry

“I tend to spend a little more time than I should in the hotel,” said O’Sullivan, who has worked at the hotel for almost two years. “Normally we are off mid-week when the hotel is at its quietest.”

As the deputy GM O’Sullivan is involved in managing and coordinating the activities of between 60 and 100 people, depending on the time of year, with summer being the busiest time. The hotel’s customers range from individuals coming to enjoy Kerry, to groups of more than 600 people. The groups include people coming for business conferences, and for weddings, which are a major part of the hotel’s business.

An important current project for O’Sullivan is working with individual hotel department heads to establish a “Standards of Performance” manual for each department. The manual is a useful management tool based on the well-established concept that “if you can count it then you can measure it; and if you can measure it, you can improve it.”

O’Sullivan’s career interest  was prompted by the two-year course in Travel & Tourism topics he took beginning when he was age 16 while a student at Killarney’s venerable St. Brendan’s Academy. (A sample of the work of current students at St.Brendan’s can be seen by linking onto case studies here.) Hotel management was perhaps a natural choice since his family at one time also operated a Bed and Breakfast catering to tourists. His formal training began at 18 when he started a four-and-half year management trainee course with a hotel company, and most of it was hands-on, practical training in each of the hotel’s 15 departments.

“You might spend 9 months in the kitchen department, 6 months in the accounts department, “said O’Sullivan, whereas you might spend 4 months in the bar and maybe 6 months in the restaurant. It varied, and it was certainly enjoyable.”

O’Sullivan broadened his experience by working at a big-city hotel in Dublin and by working at a hotel that specialized in catering to people on vacation. They included Ireland’s Taoiseach or Prime Minister, who likes to spend two weeks there each year. Along the way O’Sullivan decided he also needed to see what the world was like outside Ireland, and he spent a year in Australia, and traveled.

Like most career managers in the hospitality industry O’Sullivan has to work hard to balance the demands of job and family life, and he will soon be a father. Finding the balance is not easy. Conference organizers making decisions  about where to hold their meeting want to have their calls returned quickly, and other hotels are only to glad to step in and offer their services if the organizer is not happy.  Weddings require extra attention to detail.

O’Sullivan likes his work and also the segment of the hotel industry that he is in. “I more enjoy the smaller type of hotel. You can have a bigger impact. In a big hotel—you can get lost in them,” he said.

And you don’t have as much contact with guests, said O’Sullivan, something he enjoys.

 “I’d like to remain in the four star (category of hotel), and maybe hit the five star product at some point in my career and stay at the level of management I am at the moment, and hopefully move on up to the general manager role.”
At some point he may contemplate going into business for himself, but that is a long way in the future, and it would have to be in Kerry, preferably in Killarney.

“I’m happy to stay in Kerry, actually. This is where I’m based. I’m happy to stay here now in Killarney for the rest of my days. That’s my plan at the moment.