Tourism and Hospitality – Booming with Opportunities

Tourism is important when it comes to Namibia’s economy as it contributes to the growth domestic product (GDP) of our country.

From sunsets that are seen nowhere else in the world to international heritage sites such as the King Iipumbu ya Tshilongo memorial at Onatshiku in the Elim constituency or Twyfelfontein in the south, there are so many things to do and see.

With this in mind, many jobs opportunities in this field have been created in order to sustain the field, such as being a tour guide or a lodge manager. Many still believe these career options as underrated, but you should know that it’s a necessity. YouthPaper explores why.

Inspirational Story

Travel and toursim is considered as a vocational course as it is a practical field. In other words, people are taught skills where they have to use their hands. This could range from learning how to make a bed in a hotel room or enhancing your cooking skills. Despite its status as a vocational course, many universities offer tourism and hospitality management as a degree because students are offered courses that involve critical thinking, leadership, planning and other skills for needed for the job.

The University of Namibia, for example, offers a bachelor degree in tourism management/heritage studies which involves the fundamentals of tourism management, regional geography, intercultural communication, socialogy and advanced geography, among others – key areas which enable the course to become a degree programme.

Simon Williams is one of the people who decided to pursue a career in hospitality and tourism and thanks to a postgraduate partial scholarship (PGPS), he was able to undergo training in two countries, namely Switzerland and the USA, with assistance from the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF).

In Switzerland, he completed the Swiss Hospitality Touch Education for Postgraduate Hotel Operations Management course at the Swiss Hotel Management (SHMS) University Centre of Excellence in Leysin. This is what he had to say about it: “The journey was very intensive, yet an inspiring learning experience. With dependable leadership, SHMS nurtured a pivotal journey for my career,” he said. However, he wanted more experience.

“After graduation, immediately I found 12 months practical hands-on hospitality training with emphasis on becoming indispensable for exceeding guest’s expectations.” This was done at one fo the best beach and country clubs in West Pal Beach Gardens, south Florida, US – Frenchman’s Creek.

Speaking on what the scholarship did for him, Williams said:

“NSFAF’s PGPS enriched my hands-on competence to develop insight and dependable leadership for adapting to demographics of highly professional and successful millionaires and billionaires who were our esteemed members and guests on daily basis at Frenchman’s Creek”.

Some of the areas Williams grew in included social skills, punctuality, passion and teamwork, creating a warm hospitality service and enriching his global career paths.

“NSFAF’s PGPS has enriched my hands-on competence for win-win and practising hospitality arts of precision, combined with punctuality, passion, teamwork, attentiveness, discreet and innovative leadership!”

Williams also had advice for those who were interested in pursuing the field. “Appreciate more values of ‘always be you’ and be passionate. Be curious for knowledge, be kind with all people, respect others, be authentic, innovate and open-minded.” He mentioned that students should also be compassionate. “Do not be afraid to make mistakes, and always make smiling an essential daily attribute!”

Aiming to be one of the best in the industry, Williams feels quite passionate about the future. “For my future hospitality career, I want to incorporate some of the effective lessons I have learnt during my internship training, for example, being an inclusive leader who listens to his colleagues and gets them involved with a clear guidance of ensuring success.” Williams has received awards such as trainee of the month and intern leadership enrichment and development certificates from the United States government.

The Corprorate Side

The Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) is all about careers in tourism and hospitality management, hence their new campaign which aims to ‘promote adequate training of persons engaged or to be engaged in the toursim industry’. “The objectives of this campaign are to promote tourism and hospitality as a preferred field of study and as a career,” the NTB stated. They also said they want to create awareness amongst the youth, boost enrolment for the course at at institutions of higher learning and encourage tourism operators to partner in view of internship properties.

This is all part of the NTB mandate to actively support the long-term conservation, maintenance and development of the natural resource base in Namibia.

So if you thought tourism can’t do anything for you, you’d be wrong!

Interested in finding out more about tourism and hospitality? The options are plenty. The Namibia University of Science and Technology offers a bachelor of tourism or a bachelor of hospitality management. The Namibian Academy for Tourism offers training for national tour guides. Get educated at the Namibian Institute of Culinary Education (or Wolwedans).

PARADISE … An overview of the Frenchman’s Creek in Florida, US where Simon Williams studied.