Teaching to Expect the Unexpected
Hospitality and tourism management students expanded their global views through a six-month hotel internship in Dalian, China.
Immediate impact and the industry’s cyclical nature underscore a lesson Adler and his colleagues try to convey to students. “We are teaching students to think in a long-term perspective,” Adler says. “We are teaching them skills that will work effectively in good times and bad.”
He cites other business-disruption incidents such as Hurricane Katrina and the Japanese tsunami. “Overall the tourism and hospitality industry is very susceptible to outside issues that it can’t control, which slows down tourism.” Last year’s volcano eruptions in Iceland hurt European air travel. Similar volcanic explosions in Chile hurt flights to Australia and New Zealand. “There’s always something going on and our students will constantly face challenges like these in their careers. In the classroom, we prepare them to think ahead.”
And thinking ahead means thinking globally. Students who were 8 years old in 2001 are now in college. “Their outlook is more global,” Adler says. “And so are their opportunities.”
In the past 10 years, the economy has become more global, as has the school’s instruction. “We are preparing our undergraduates with knowledge about other cultures and expanding their horizons due to globalization,” Adler says. “Most of the major companies’ growth will take place outside the United States. Our students need to know this.”
Hotel companies such as Intercontinental Hotel Group, Starwood Hotels and Marriott are all counting on global markets for a significant share of their future growth. Marriott, for example, is taking its entire product line — 15 different brands — international, Adler says.
Accordingly, the HTM curriculum includes more discussions of cultures and customs, even politics, Adler says. Furthermore, the majority of the school’s master’s and Ph.D. candidates are international students. A third of the faculty members hail from other countries.
“China is the number one tourism destination in the world,” Adler says, citing the school’s internship programs with two hotel chains in China. China also is the top growth market for McDonald’s restaurants. With more than 1,000 restaurants and tens of thousands of employees there already, McDonald’s Corp. announced plans to increase its investment in China by 40 percent in 2011, opening 175-200 new restaurants in the country.
Such global realities mean study abroad opportunities have grown and will continue to increase, Adler says. Over the last few years, Alder has been to 108 countries himself, and HTM study abroad programs were conducted in Argentina, Chile, Dubai, Oman, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Denmark.
Bruce Grosbety (HTM '85)
Grosbety is vice president of operations for the Terra Resort Group.
He is profiled in an article about sustainability and the hotel industry
