On Friday 27 May 2022, a public lecture was held discussing in-depth about the world of hospitality and career opportunities. The public lecture held via Zoom specifically is aimed to all students of Applied Foreign Languages, Universitas Diponegoro. This activity invited an expert in the field of hospitality, i.e. Ms Vera Damayanti, SE, S.Pd, M.Pd. This activity was moderated by Audrey Sophia, a third-year student of Applied Foreign Languages.
The purpose of holding this public lecture is for students to understand more about the world of hospitality and career prospect in this industry. This public lecture can be used as an overview of the hospitality and tourism industry in Indonesia as well as a job briefing in the tourism industry.
In her presentation, Ms Vera said that tourism is a basic and important thing for a country, not only to benefit the economy, but also as a reflection or identity of each country. Indonesia itself has a variety of uniqueness in each region so that it has the potential to become a tourism industry. There are several important components in tourism development such as
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- natural, social and cultural resources,
- accommodation such as homestay and hotel,
- institution and human resources,
- infrastructure of tourist attractions,
- sufficient transportation,
- other supporting facilities such as merchandise stores, and
- Local community’s contribution.
Ms Vera said that in recent times, the condition and development of tourism and the sectors in it have experienced a crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Why is that? Because this industry plays the most massive role for Indonesia in the stability of the country in any way. In fact, the biggest issue that is difficult to deal with is the health issue. In this industry, the main stakeholder is the government, because the government has the authority in the policies that are made. Policies are urgently needed for the development of tourism and hospitality.
The prospect of this industry is very large in Indonesia in the sense that job opportunities are also wide from various sectors in it. These include hotels, restaurants, catering, cruise ships, spas, service managers, MICE, travel agencies, travel consultants, travel agencies, tour managers, and professional convention & exhibition organizers.
The message from Ms Vera: “If you want to enter this industry, you must have a good identity and mentality, especially during job training, the mental of serving is very important when entertaining tourists or guests. Maintaining the trust of consumers is important for business players in this industry.”
Author: Vergina Moluscas
Translator: Aditya Nur Patria