As a Hospitality and Tourism
Management Graduate, I tend to ask myself the question of 'How to choose a career in my field of study in Nigeria?' because the career paths in the Hospitality and Tourism industry are endless and full of potentials.
Back in school, we were taught to inhale Tourism as our oxygen and to exhale Hospitality and our carbon (iv) oxide, we're taught Hospitality and Tourism has numerous career paths to choose from be it becoming the Manager of a 5 star hotel, an e-ticketing consultant, a tour planner and operator, the career paths in Hospitality and Tourism are endless due to its recent rapid growth around the world.
But we never factored in that we are in Nigeria, a country whose main source of G.D.P is from crude oil products, a country that tend to neglect the efforts of the private sector and most of all a country that is yet to see the growing benefits of investing more Hospitality and Tourism.
In my senior year in University back in 2016, I usually told my colleagues that it was going to be easy to make a break through into the industry, I and some of my colleagues claimed we were going to become Hospitality and Tourism Managers, people who would matter in the industry, because why?
"We studied Hospitality and Tourism". I'm not saying I regret my choosing Hospitality and Tourism, all I'm trying to say is the industry isn't ready for us yet.
In the country we live in right now, most of the career paths we want to choose are being occupied by individuals who know little or nothing about the industry, how to be competitive and create room for growth in the industry.
They have no knowledge of the power they possess, to change the tides when it comes to rebranding Hospitality and Tourism, packaging it and making it palatable to their intended customers.
I usually say Hospitality and Tourism in Nigeria is like a virgin, waiting for the right person to open her up, having so much untapped potential that we as Nigerians are blind to see.
We are all fixated on making quick cash that we tend to neglect the basic benefits of improving our Hospitality and Tourism industry in Nigeria.
Let's take a look at Venezuela, for instance, a country which is mainly dependent on their oil export which made the country rich, it was said to have had the largest oil reserve in the world, oil made up about 90% of its export,
when the price of oil began to collapse in 2014, the cash received by its capital began to drop significantly which ushered in new economic challenges and according to the IMF, the growth of Venezuela is set to sink more in years to come.
A colleague of mine once shared a terrible story with me about how he as a Hospitality and Tourism Graduate, not a 1year professional course, but a four year course from a prestigious University,
sets out to make a change in the way we view the Hospitality industry, bearing in mind that he is now a qualified professional, submits his C.V. to a hotel for a job, did well in the interview, but wasn't given a job.
You may ask why? Okay, let me tell you, he was told by the interviewers that he was too qualified for the position, and that they know if he gets employed, they stand a chance of loosing their job,
given to the fact that they themselves aren't even qualified enough to be in the position they occupied, no Hospitality and Tourism background, nothing. I felt bad when I heard that.
I'm not trying to paint an image that every individual currently in the industry is unqualified, I'm just saying that we as a nation should look into these issues we face in this industry.
It may seem little, but it's growing, because if we don't do it now, I'm sorry to say, we might face what the Venezuelans are currently suffering.
We as a nation have to stand together to uphold what is right and try to deal with this head on, we only have a limited time but it's never too late to make a difference. Think Nigeria, think.
Thanks for your time.
You must be logged in to post a comment.