Lola Herrero, academic director of the Master in Hospitality and Tourism Management Campus ESCP Europe Madrid; believes that “the training programs of undergraduate (BA in Tourism) inherit the curricula of ADE (Business Administration), with lightweight approaches to the specificities of tourism” and this is a big gap.
The solution, in her opinion, “goes through training proposals in Hotel and Tourism Management with applied curricula, designed according to the needs of tourism enterprises, and teaching-learning innovative, applied and applicable (live case study, international consulting projects, etc.) “; in addition to “a proposal for graduate programs that have the alliance between prestigious educational institutions in complementary areas.”
Therefore José María de Juan Alonso, director of Koan Consulting and expert collaborator of ESCP Europe, does not believe that “right now we leading tourism training. Most of what they offer universities and a large part of the private schools of tourism is very uncompetitive and obsolete, without innovation and with little participation of international experts. Few offers include the participation nor the international mobility of students. “
Therefore he considers that “a large part of the management staff of the sector is not up to par, especially in terms of sustainability knowledge and understanding of international market trends and customer profiles, etc.”. And, says, “changes have occurred mainly in the need to adapt to sustainability and forms of communication, promotion and distribution increasingly focused on the online field. However, I think the current management should not forget the offline and the importance of trade fairs, public relations and direct marketing and promotional events involving human relationships. I think many young managers have no idea of these issues by his obsession on the technological aspects and it is wrong. “
Not surprisingly, as highlighted Alberto Romo, CEO of Oahsis Tourism Consulting and expert collaborator of ESCP Europe, “lead, manage and lead a business in this day and age is becoming more demanding. Requirements such as creativity, passion for what you do every day, flexibility professionally and personally and have ability to see long term are required. “
Therefore, today in what refers to the skills and attitudes to be met for a manager of a tourism company to succeed, one of the keys, as Lola Herrero, “it is the combination of two important variables. On the one hand, knowledge of management tools but always extremely focused on the specifics of the tourism sector. Furthermore, the development and implementation of the necessary work in multicultural and changing contexts in which adaptability and leadership is fundamental human teams’ skills.
For Romo “skills necessary to any industry executive who wants to achieve success are: momentum, motivation leadership, honesty and integrity, confidence, intelligence, knowledge, enthusiasm, humility, team orientation, communication and strategic vision “.
In this scenario José María de Juan Alonso believes that “the sector is heading for a need to incorporate partnerships with international brands and management systems to change this situation, and so will have to make tourism schools.”
More than 18 years of experience working in sales and marketing in the hospitality and tourism industry: tour operating, airlines and private hotels and hotel chains in both, domestic and international markets.