Confessions of a Tourism Student

I know you’ve probably heard someone talking like, “Naku, math haters ang mga Tourism students”. Or perhaps able to read in an online forum something like, “Tourism? Ushers and usherettes lang sila, dba?”. It sometimes gets on to our nerve when we hear murmurs similar to, “Ganda lang naman ang meron sa mga Tourism students” and “Ano trabaho kaya nila pagkagraduate? Professional tourist? Tour guide?”. We also oftentimes accidentally hear from those people, “Tourism is just an easy course.”. How many times have we heard these same old lame insights? It’s as if these people formed a conspiracy against us, tourism students. We frequently hear those offensive remarks, making a negative stereotype impression about Tourism course (and students taking up Bachelor of Science in Tourism), feeding our ‘full’ inferiority complex over what they call as ‘BIG’ and ‘HARD’ courses.

Attending endless events, seminars and conventions.

  

Little do some people know that it takes a lot to become a tourism student. It’s not just about beauty, but personality (glowing and pleasing personality), attitude (service oriented attitude), mind (logical and witty mind) and confidence (glimmering confidence) as well. Funny how some people misjudge us telling how easy and good for nothing our course was and concluding how much better their course was. How could someone who basically have not taken up Tourism as his / her course tell that it is an easy course and just for dumb people? The life of a tourism student is not as easy as what those people think.  Determining the difference between arrive and arrivé, knowing where in the world is ‘Tuvalu’ located at and its capital, identifying the three – letter code for Seychelles airport, searching for world’s well known spots, memorizing the world map, doing endless video documentaries and minor research over tourism trends, deciding whether a passenger will be considered as a child or an infant for flight booking, running after the SecGen’s and OSA office for approval of an event, seeking out every corner of the UST library just to get a good grasp of a book required for a report, catching up for missed lessons for attending tours, events, conventions and seminars, these are just a few of the reality in the life of a tourism student.

Doing event promotions.
(ARTURA: Art and Culture for a cause -class event)

The careers in Tourism are not just confined to being a flight attendant. Our alma matter is molding us into a tourism practitioner that is not just beautiful and glamorous, but a well rounded and balanced one. True enough, the previous tourism curriculum is like a little bit of everything. We have geography, philosophy and ethics, theology, literature, history, english and math, economics, accounting, business management, law, computer, events management, personality development, foreign languages (Spanish, Nihonggo and French, all of which has learning levels of basic, intermediate and advanced), hotel and operation theories and of course not to mention our major tourism subjects, domestic and global tourism, transportation management, travel operations and management, ecotourism, recreational tourism, airline computer reservation system, cultural tourism, marketing for hospitality and tourism, etc. etc. A great pool of subjects that may lead us to become competent travel agents, tour coordinators, tour guides, ticket agents, country club manager and staff, front desk clerks, travel writers, event organizers, public relation officers, cruise attendants, academicians, lawyers (if Sir G inspired you to take up law and be like him), foreign service officers (if you pass the exam administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs) and a whole lot more. You may also want to manage your own travel agency and be your own boss. With the list of job opportunities we may venture in, it seems we have a bright future ahead of us. Therefore, we must not let others detract us. Some “non tourism” courses (the ‘difficult ones’ as they labeled it), after graduation, ended up in careers that are totally out of the league of their four year education. With the booming tourism industry we have in our country nowadays, we now are sure that we have a place to land after our four years of learning.

Invaded the Senate to come up with a 'star-studded'
video documentary.

In the end, it is still up to us, tourism students, on how we’ll give dignity to our course. It’s up to us on how we’ll prove them wrong. It’s up to us on how we’ll utilize and apply the things that we learned and were instilled in us by our marvelous professors. Now, when someone ask, “Why Tourism?”, proudly answer back “And why not Tourism?” with a revenging and devilish smile.

(Article contribution to University of Sto. Tomas' College of Tourism and Hospitality Management Magazine, 2008-ish)