As a part of the teaching and learning activity, the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events (SHTE) organized a virtual Tourism Speaker Series entitled ‘Planning and Managing Tourism Project?’ on 3rd May 2021. The session aimed to introduce tourism project planning procedures from the industry’s perspectives. Around 50 students from various programmes such as Bachelor of International Tourism Management (Hons.), Bachelor of International Tourism Management (Hons.) (Events Management) and Foundation in Arts joined this 2-hour session.
Dato' Thangavelu Kuppusamy, Deputy President of Malaysia Tourism Council (MTC) was invited as a Guest Speaker to share his knowledge and experiences in planning and handling the tourism project in a systematic method. This session covered several essential components such as tourism planning, tourism management, marketing strategies, technologies in tourism and cultural tourism of Sarawak.
In tourism planning, he explained the levels of tourism planning (which include international, national, regional and sub-regional levels) and the planning process with relevant tourism project examples. He described the different types or forms of tourism and how the respective tourism stakeholders managed these forms. He also linked the roles of tourism supply and tour operators in this management process. He further explained how technologies had been widely used in tourism to support the development and sustainability of the industries and projects. Furthermore, Dato' Thangavelu provided additional information on the impact of Covid-19 on the Hospitality and Tourism industries and vaccine passport as a potential strategy to overcome the consequences of the pandemic.
The Q&A session became more interactive when the students asked about tourism projects and sustainable matters. Dato' Thangavelu encouraged the students to actively participate in tourism assignments and projects organized by the school and share the outcomes with the respective tourism stakeholders such as the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC), Tourism Malaysia, Tour operators. The speaker series was a very insightful and enjoyable session for the students.