Page 204 - Tourism The International Business

9. The management of tourism

• Specifically, they should be given a one-day tour through the community which highlights the area's
attractions and services. (Employers should be willing to grant this one day with pay to improve their

employee's ability to interact with tourist customers.)
• They should know what to do in an emergency whether it be a fire, robbery, fainting spell, heart attack, or
someone choking on food (applying the Heimlich maneuver); whom to call first; how to, and how not to,
react in an emergency situation.

Training for specialized services' personnel
In addition to knowing their own specialized jobs, service personnel should receive additional training as it
relates to tourism and to the individual tourist.
Here again, the training should emphasize the impact that tourism has on their job or business. They should
welcome tourists as they would any other guest. Their hospitality training should emphasize "doing the extras" that
tourists like, but may not expect:

• extra help in giving directions;
• extra time to explain the nice things about your community and specific things that tourists should do while
visiting the community;
• extra explanations that help tourists find whatever they are seeking.

Training the members of the community
Community training programs may be accomplished in two ways.
• Normal communication channels, for example, press releases, public meetings, or progress reports may be
used.
• Special presentations to community interest groups by tourism personnel or by the community's leaders

may be made.
What instruction should the members of the community receive? The most important training should tell
citizens about the economic and social impact of tourism. They should know how tourism affects their taxes and
where these dollars go in schools, hospitals, street repair, and community beautification.
The community members also must be taught the importance of civic pride, clean-up campaigns, and
maintaining a good community image. Citizens must learn to understand tourists.

Who should do the training?
Ideally, the training should be done by experts in tourism training, or by the tourism organization personnel.
Frequently, however, tourism training is handled by employers, or by osmosis, and, of course, is only minimally
effective.

The tourism organization, if it does not provide the necessary training, should prepare a list of the training
needs, based on the community's tourism objective, and establish a mechanism for training that it can coordinate
or supervise and evaluate.
Some communities offer tourism courses in local high schools and colleges. The tourism organization should
encourage all tourist-oriented businesses and their employees to take these courses. In other communities, the
Chamber of Commerce or other civic organization or association may offer instruction-orientation in tourism.

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