TOURISM-PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Many of you like to work in five star hotels. Now hear is a surprise. The future is in Bed and Breakfast accommodation, Boutique hotels which are small. Small is beautiful and one must be flexible to change with the times. If you want to be part of something large, then think of marketing villas in a remote resort that acts as a club, health spa, with a signature golf course and a marina.

The future workforce shall be young. It is quite possible to see a work force below thirty-five years. So you will have to think of two or possibly three phases in your working life. Those mature professionals who get out of the employment market have to re-engineer themselves to consider self-employment. There are ample opportunities for entrepreneurship in growing cities and countries. Perhaps you would like to think of becoming a tourism entrepreneur and work along with local tourist departments in developing new tourism sites within nature. There is enough space for small business that provides service.  The new generation want this.

This book is ideal as an introduction to the tourism industry and is therefore rightly in the first year of a tourism and hotel school curriculum. It is necessary to understand the present dynamics and the future directions. This book will be an ideal eye-opener to the future. Students will like to keep this in mind when preparing for exciting careers.

Readers, it is time to shed the old coat and wear the new one of this new exciting millennium. I wish all of you the best of luck in their pursuit of becoming the new tourism professional.