Career options in Hospitality and Tourism Management

Tourism is the seventh largest contributor to the country's GDP in the financial year 2017. The reasons are clear. With increased connectivity, better infrastructure and aggressive marketing worldwide, tourists from all over the world are travelling to our country to experience its rich heritage and natural beauty. Even the domestic tourists are contributing a lot.

When someone visits an unknown place, they need a good hotel, restaurants, guide, interpreter in the case of foreign nationals and a lot of other things. You can imagine the number of the workforce needed to meet all these. Obviously, this sector holds golden opportunities. From being a master chef on a cruise ship to handling road trips, all come under tourism and hospitality. 

Together with that, this sector also covers restaurants, eateries and basically any place that entertains guests. So, even the five-star hotel in a nondescript place comes under the hospitality industry. There is always a demand for skilled professionals in this field. Here are some of the best career options in this sector.

Job Opportunities and Career Prospects in Hospitality and Tourism Management

Resort Manager
All the tourist destinations have resorts. Since they are spread over a large area and have numerous facilities, proper care and coordination among the staff are needed. As the resort manager, you will have a wide range of duties. You will be required to entertain guests, look after their demands and ensure that the resort is in good shape. You need to have excellent communication skills. Being bilingual is a must, more languages the better. In the famous tourist places like Goa or Varanasi, you will have guests from several nations. Many of them may not understand English. So, it will be better for your guests if you happen to understand their language. To get into this position, you need to do bachelors in hotel management. It is a comprehensive course which touches all aspects of managing a hotel or resort. The salary can be anything between 8-10 LPA.

Chef
If you love cooking and experimenting with food, you can be the star Chef in a restaurant. In a casual cooking, we don’t pay too much attention to a presentation or even the preparation. This technique and the related etiquettes will be taught to you in your undergraduate course. Several hotel management colleges offer undergraduate or diploma course in culinary arts. From teaching you how to sharpen knives regularly to make the mouth-watering chocolate mousse, you will be taught everything here. You will get exposure to the cooking styles from all over the world. You will get to learn new techniques. Do you know that in Japan, chefs need a license for preparing fugu fish which is a delicacy? You can imagine the seriousness of the job from the fact this fish can cause permanent nerve damage if prepared carelessly. We know that restaurants are known by their chef. You can show your skill, creativity and innovative side here. And if you perform well, you can be the famous chef.

Catering Manager
As a catering manager, your job profile includes planning the list of food and beverages for the guests, getting them prepared according to the instructions and ensuring that all the guests get it. You will also be responsible for ensuring that the proper hygiene is maintained and that you meet the goal in the stipulated financial margin. You job nature will be very much dependent upon the organization you will work for. In big hotels or restaurants, you will have a whole team of managers, helpers, and chefs. You will get to plan well in advance. In a small organization, you may have just a chef and a helper. And you will get the order just hours before. Whatever be the six of the company, your job nature will be basically the same. You can also open your own catering company, take individual orders from clients and meet their demand on time. 

Event Manager
There are many events happening every now and then. And, people have got very less time. Even the hosts are short on leaves. So, the event manager comes into the picture. As an event manager, you will responsible for arranging and coordinating the whole event. If it is a business meeting, you need to ensure that there are enough tables and chairs. That all of them are arranged properly with good sight of the stage. That there are enough foods and drinks. That the waiters are properly dressed and the decoration is as per demand. The list continues. The work becomes even more hectic for big cultural functions and weddings. There are many colleges like the national academy of media and events that offer this course. The fresher gets about 2.5 LPA. But this salary rises exponentially with experience.

Fast Food Restaurant Manager
With the increase in outlets on McDonald's, burger king, KFC and likewise, there is a growing demand for fast food restaurant managers as well. They are required to collectively manage the finances, human resource, sales, operations, and marketing. When there is a new offer or a campaign, they need to foresee that more and more customers are attracted to it. That is the reason, yo get so many pamphlets of a particular restaurant even while walking.  The average salary in this field is around 4LPA. However, most people climb up the ladder with increasing number of experience.

Public House Manager
Even pubs and bars come under the hospitality industry. And, managing it requires both skill and etiquette. Then only such joints can be a success. As the public-house manager, you will be entrusted with the job of managing the pub as a whole. You will be required to look after its security and also of the guests inside. You need to pay proper attention tot he quality of foods and drinks served along with their hygiene. Also, the accounts will be properly managed. Guests need to be entertained with games, musical shows, and quizzes. Their feedback should be paid attention to. So, what seems like just managing a pub becomes a really hectic task for public house managers. Public house managers get paid around 4LPA. 

Accommodation Manager
Accommodation managers are needed in hotels, housing societies, old age homes, sports hostel and so on. Their prime duty is ensuring that all the guests or tenants are comfortably accommodated in their rooms. They also need to ensure the good standards of cleanliness, hygiene, and other services. Most of the time, they are also responsible for keeping their staff well-trained. In our country, this course is offered not as any specialization but in the comprehensive form across all the management colleges. The salary for fresher starts fro around 2.5 LPA.

Travel Guide
With so many historical, cultural and ecological heritage in our country, it is impossible for an outsider to know about all of these. As a Travel Guide, you can be the informer of the significance of a particular place to the tourists. You can be a tourist guide if you are a graduate. You need to pass the guide training exam conducted by Indian Institute of tourism and hotel management on behalf of the ministry of tourism. After that, you will undergo the training, you can work as the guide. It will be an added advantage if you are multilingual. You can work in association with hotels, travel agencies or even a freelancer. The pay varied according to the tourist rush and also your own expertise.

Marketing Executive
A marketing executive works for the better marketing and campaigning of the hotel or the restaurant. You need to have an MBA in marketing to get into this field. If you have done to your graduation in the hotel management, it will be even better. As the marketing executive, you will be mainly dealing with the PR campaign for the hotel. Attracting more tourists, making a strong online presence, ensuring services at par with the advertisement and developing attractive packages come under the job scope of a marketing executive. The salary depends on the hotel you are working with. On an average, you can expect 12LPA.

Travel Agent
You can also open your own travel agency. People need a well-planned vacation where they don’t want to waste their time on finding hotels, restaurants, guides, and transport for sight-seeing. As a travel agent,  you can suggest to people about the best package according to their budget and available time. After that, you will make all the arrangements for them. With so many people going on vacations with their busy lifestyle, the travel agent’s job is always on demand. You need to have good connections with the affordable hotels, food joints, guides, and transport agencies to facilitate all of these. You don’t really need any kind of certification for this. But having an MBA will help a lot. You will be technically equipped to upgrade your agency.

Tourism and hospitality are one of the sectors showing constant growth. With a greater manpower and better infrastructure, this demand is only going to soar. Governments across the states are already doing their best to develop tourist circuits. Making a career in this field will turn out to be a turning point in your life. You will even have the opportunity to travel the world and learn from them.