Sometime in September 2006 a student in Russia or Brazil will become the 350,000th student to be enrolled this year in the Global Travel & Tourism Partnership, a worldwide tourism education program designed specifically for secondary school students.

The Partnership, usually known as the GTTP, is a coalition of tourism education programs in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Jamaica, Russia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Members of the GTTP share expertise, experiences, and cooperate in the development of programs.

This year the GTTP operates in more than 6,000 schools in over 1,161 cities.

The GTTP’s objective is to encourage interest in the industry among students at the age when they are starting to consider their career options, and to introduce students to skills they will need to compete in an increasingly globalized industry.

Global Industry, Local Products

GTTP school programs build on that interest by providing an understanding of the role that the Travel & Tourism industry plays both in their home economies and in the global economy. They make students aware of both the corporate careers and small business opportunities open to them. They also, we hope, provide a realistic sense of what it takes for an individual to be successful in a global industry that delivers what in essence are local products.

The GTTP works with local and national education authorities, tourism development ministries and corporate leaders of the industry.

At the worldwide level we are supported by our global partners: Accor, Amadeus, American Express, Hogg Robinson (HRG), Hertz, KLM, Lufthansa, as well as the World Travel & Tourism Council. Senior Executives on our Advisory Board provide advice, direction and money.

Our member countries are supported also by some 300 national companies and, at the local level, by about 2,000 business partners. Governments provide teachers and classrooms.

Student Growth Is Explosive

The GTTP was established in 1996 using as its starting point the tourism education program established in 1986 with grants by the American Express Foundation. By the time the GTTP was organized the program had about 36,000 students enrolled. Ten years later there are more than 330,000 current students.

For the industry to attract the right people, it is important that students, their teachers and career advisors understand the many different facets of what is a complex industry, said David Kast, Head of Human Resources, Hogg Robinson Group.

This is where the foundation studies provided by the GTTP play an important part. Currently HRG operates in some 89 countries, so there is a chance that students commencing GTTP schemes in different parts of the world, will go on to complete further travel and tourism studies and may perhaps end up working for HRG and other GTTP Partners in years to come!”

GTTP has a long geographical reach: it serves students from British Columbia to Cape Town and from Sao Paolo to Vladivostok.

Socially, the GTTP’s reach is deep: in some schools the computer is a familiar tool. In others, students are lucky to share textbooks. For some students the travel and tourism industry is one of many career options. For others, the industry offers a chance for a better life either in a small business or with a large company.

CHALLENGES: Industry Image

Nevertheless, one important challenge facing the industry is “trying to improve its image as employers of young people,” said John Humphreys, director of the UK program, which is part of the Springboard organization.

About two years ago Ray Shanks, who heads the Irish program, was part of an industry, education and government forum charged with addressing the future of tourism education in Ireland.

The forum agreed that a key challenge for the industry will be to “change the perception of the industry from one of ‘bad pay and conditions’ to one that offers a sustained career path,” reported Shanks.

Part of the problem is the sheer lack of knowledge among young people about how the industry operates.

“Many young people enter the industry with misconceptions and as a result soon become disillusioned and leave to seek a career in other areas of the economy,” said Darryn von Maltitz, director of the South Africa program, which is part of the National Business Initiative and serves more than 200,000 students in 1,179 schools in all nine provinces of the country.

And, said von Maltitz, “Industry complains that young people entering the sector are not service minded nor passionate about the sector.”


CHALLENGES: Expanding Tourism Education

A variation of von Maltitz’s and Humphreys’s views can be heard in Hungary.

“Tourists often complain about grumpy and impolite service in tourist attractions, hotels and restaurants, “ said Attila Horvath of the Foundation for School Development who heads the Hungarian program. Too often tourism education is seen as a strictly vocational training process, he said.

“Globalism has its great advantages and is a fact. However, in peripheral countries, like Hungary, the result is a growing gap between the local culture and the multinational company culture,” said Horvath.

That “multinational company culture” knows what it needs.

“The potential explosive growth of tourism from emerging markets like China, Brazil and India demands a professional approach” to tourism education, said Paul Gregorowitsch, Executive Vice President/Commercial of KLM.

We need more governments to become involved in starting Travel & Tourism education at the secondary school level to meet the increasing demand. The GTTP can provide curricular materials and teacher training as needed. This is particularly important for countries that see the industry as key to economic development.

Concurrent with more government involvement is the need for local industry to collaborate with schools by providing work-study, or internship, opportunities, and by helping teachers keep abreast of industry developments. Industry and government both can help by printing textbooks and paying the costs of on-going teacher training.

WHAT STUDENTS LEARN: The GTTP Approach

Each national program develops its curriculum to meet its national educational standards and requirements. Brazil and South Africa also have expanded their programs to include adult education courses.

Each national program is based at a local institution or organization. For example, in Brazil the program’s home is the University of Sao Paulo; in the UK, at Springboard; in Canada, at the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council.

Typically, students learn about the industry and its needs through assignments that emphasize research, written and oral communication skills, teamwork, problem solving, and creative thinking. They learn basic industry concepts, like customer service and sustainability, and about the global industry structure and practices. In addition, they learn about Travel & Tourism in their regions. Internships at travel-related business are an important element in all national programs.

The GTTP’s national directors believe that learning-by-doing is an effective teaching tool in combination with classroom lectures and helps develop skills essential to living and working in today’s economy.

For example, GTTP’s “Passport” curriculum includes projects that teach students to participate as members of a work team where they conduct research, use company reports, create and conduct customer surveys or use the Internet to research their city or region as a destination. These are also skills they will find useful later in their careers.

Formally known as “Passport to the World: An Introduction to Travel & Tourism,” the curriculum reflects the experience of country directors and teachers over the past 10 years. It was funded by the Global Partners. We supported the development of Passport because we know how important it is for students to have a global perspective, said Charles J. Petruccelli, President, Global Travel Services, American Express.

“Passport” is the basic introductory curriculum in Russia and is being introduced in Brazil with support from the Brazilian federal government.
“Passport” has been translated into Magyar and used to supplement the Hungarian curriculum. It also adds a global dimension to supplement nationally focused curricula in other member countries.

Student teams also compete by researching an assigned theme---in 2006 the theme is “cultural tourism”---with each national winning team presenting its report at an annual meeting, held usually in Germany.

Some teams have been very large. In Brazil last year 727 students from four schools joined together for a research project on “Adventure Tourism” in their region.

Certification Employers Can Trust

The UK program is working on a formal qualification that students can take to an employer.

“The UK is developing a new and exciting...Specialized Diploma in Travel & Tourism, which will be first delivered in high schools in 2010,” said John Humphreys, director of the UK program.

GTTP is also working with City & Guilds, a long-established certifying organization based in London, to establish international criteria for students to meet in order to earn a certificate of accomplishment that will be recognized by employers. The certificate program is being tested in Russia, Hungary and Jamaica.

The GTTP’s move toward a credentialing system reflects similar moves in the industry.

“Here in the UK the business travel management companies got together to form their own series of qualifications, for which a number of colleges provide courses and in which the syllabus is kept up to date by the industry,” said HRG’s Kast.

Government Involvement Is Growing

In the meantime tourism education and the GTTP program in Brazil have attracted the interest of the Federal Government of Brazil and its Ministry of Tourism. The government announced this year that has funded the program to train 700 teachers in 14 states, and print 130,000 student textbooks, including 20,000 sets of the GTTP “Passport” curriculum, which includes a teacher’s text, a student text, and a work book. Digital materials are also being created.

The Brazil initiative is the “first such initiative in the history of Brazil to have the Federal Government involved,” said the University of Sao Paulo’s Dr. Regina Araujo de Almeida, who guides the Brazil program.

In Russia, the Federal Government has endorsed the Passport curriculum for use in all states.

HOW CAN THE INDUSTRY SUPPORT EDUCATION?

Like most education programs, the GTTP always needs money. All company grants for student instruction are distributed 100 percent to the academic programs or to specific educational projects that the Global industry partners want to fund.

For example, in 2005 the American Express Foundation (and a local partner, Nedbank) provided funds in South Africa to train teachers to train other teachers so they can teach tourism classes. These American Express “Teaching Fellows” are helping increase the number of badly-needed instructors in that country. The company is doing the same thing in Hungary.

Money is saved on administration by having most national programs housed in a larger organization. Nevertheless, to meet the growing demand for its programs the GTTP needs more Global Partners and local partners.

Access to internships for students is very important to the GTTP.

In Hong Kong there are many more students interested in internships than there are internships available, said Pat Lui, director of the Hong Kong program.

“Springboard’ research found that work experience is the single most positive influence on young people choosing a career in travel,” said Humphreys.

The industry needs to be involved in tourism education, said both Gregorowitsch and Kast.

Tourism education “absolutely improves the professionalism of our industry,” said KLM’s Gregorowitsch.

HRG’s Kast said that tourism education programs need direct industry involvement if the programs are to meet the changing needs of a changing industry.

“This (involvement) can take the form of businesses forging links with local education establishments to help their teachers, lecturers, etc, understand what is happening to their sectors, as well as providing work experience for both students and teachers and even guest lectures,” said Kast.

American Express’ Petruccelli said that collaboration between the industry and schools has helped the GTTP reach over 600,000 students during the past decade.

“It is a perfect way for our companies to give back to the communities where we operate and help young students discover a career in the Travel and Tourism industry,” he said.