Starting your career in the tourism sector lets you acquire useful skills and experience for the rest of your career. Which? Answers by Sylvie Carrière, coordinator of student recruitment at the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ).
The Canadian tourist industry remains a major job-creating sector. Out of 175,600 “bottom end” positions that were filled in 2016, 32,600 were in accommodation and food services (close to 20%), according to Statistics Canada.
A foundation of key skills
In addition to their specific technical knowledge, the tourism professions develop undeniable skills among those who practice them. “Insurance companies and companies in the luxury sector, for example, are very appreciative of our former students with optimum know-how,” says Sylvie Carrière. Working in the hotel or restaurant industry teaches collaboration and respect for others, and taking care of the equipment and tools.
Relational know-how
“At the ITHQ, we teach our students that they will have not one but three clients: those in the usual sense, the staff they are supervising and the shareholders,” explains Sylvie Carrière. Working in the tourism sector teaches how to understand and anticipate customer needs, manage and mobilize a team, and be accountable.
More unexpected transversal skills
The tourism professions today demand a good command of new technologies. A professional in the field must be familiar with the importance of aesthetics and image on social media, and the inevitable and daily interaction with customers, through online reservation systems, monitoring of user experience reviews published on the internet, etc.
An opening to the world
With rapid and regular contact with the world of work, responsibilities to be assumed without delay provide young tourism workers with a maturity that is very valued by recruiters. “Alternating work and studies, and bilingualism, also provides our graduates with a great ease of national and international mobility and adaptability,” says Sylvie Carrière.
Higher salaries
An early career in tourism also has long-term benefits. In the United States, the US Travel Association has determined that with an equivalent high school diploma, starting in the tourism industry would obtain an annual salary some $3,000 more than employees starting their career in other business sectors.