How will it be easy to find a job in the tourism management major?

Author: Duanduanhui

Link: zhihu/question/22870038/answer/24103605

Source: Zhihu

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Many people who have studied tourism management don’t know what they have learned, let alone how in-depth a layman’s understanding of this industry can be.

1. The situation of internal and external difficulties in professional cognition

1. External cognition

Let’s first talk about laymen’s cognition of the tourism management profession.

After my classmates learned that my major was tourism management, they immediately thought that my major was called "tour guide."

When the elders I knew knew that my major was tourism management, they told me: Your major is great! It doesn’t cost anything to play around!

A friend who knows a little more said: Did you study travel agency or hotel?

A high school teacher who once taught me said: I skipped class every day, but now I can only serve the dishes.

Obviously, in the eyes of laymen, the tourism management major represents nothing more than two employment directions: "travel agency" and "hotel".

The images that people generally have in these two directions are: "tour guide" and "plate-carrying person".

What a cheat! This is it! I studied tourism, not tour guides! Even if you run a hotel, you may not be serving dishes!

In fact, when I talk about the outside world’s perception of our profession, I just want to tell you: this profession is not high-end in the eyes of outsiders! It means the service industry, and the image of the service industry to the Chinese people is that of "serving people."

Summary: After hearing about your major, outsiders will think you are low, but this does not mean that they will still think you are low after hearing about your profession (the following article mentions occupation).

So if you want to live a respectable life during your studies, this "major" may not make you look good, but you will have to think twice when you engage in specific work.

2. Learning content for the tourism management major

From a teaching perspective, it is divided into directions, and the directions mainly include travel agencies and hotels (Oh my god, why did I go back again! ).

However, gradually some schools have placed specific directions such as exhibition management, flight attendants, and travel planning under tourism management (do you think these three are a bit high-end?).

In terms of internships, the units contacted by the school are usually travel agencies and hotels (this is a black-hearted industrial chain, it would make me cry if I talk about it too much)... Areas with relatively developed tourism and dense scenic spots are still Students may be arranged to practice in scenic spots.

As for interns in tourism planning, I don’t know the specific situation, but planning companies generally recruit interns with graduate degrees.

Summary: The direction of study in school is relatively fixed, and the scope of internships is relatively narrow.

No matter what kind of tourism-related work they are engaged in, because of its extremely practical nature and the characteristics of "getting in touch with people", many interns feel that they learned things in school in vain.

P is useless!

Conclusion: Industry misunderstandings must exist, and the degree of distortion is not small.

This is related to the flaws in the education system and the direction of school teaching guidance.

But this does not affect our desire to be a high-end tourist.

2. How broad is the scope of tourism?

Anyone who has studied tourism has been exposed to the formulation of six elements, namely food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment.

How extensive are these six elements? How many industries are extended? How many related job opportunities are there? I don’t need to talk any more nonsense, right? Tourism cannot be purified as some fundamentalists claim.

When studying "pure" tourism, the wide range and strong correlation of this industry itself means that its concept is blurred.

To put it bluntly, tourism represents a comprehensive industrial cluster.

There are so many careers to choose from! (Please let go of tour guides and hotel waiters!)

In addition to travel agencies and hotels, there are also tourism planning, tourism research, tourism planning, tourism e-commerce, scenic spot related, tourism real estate, tourism investment, Tourism analysis, tourism consultation, tourism channel planning, tourism operations, tourism peripherals, tourism media, tourism exhibitions, etc.

There are simply too many.

Even a travel agency has accounting, ticketing, business and other positions. Even a hotel is divided into guest rooms, front office, catering, kitchen and other departments.

Stop staring at tour guides and waiters...

Of course, the current situation in this industry is that high-end jobs have high entry barriers. For example, planners generally require graduate students, while low-end jobs generally require graduate students. The threshold is low, but it is quite hard.

3. What exactly did you learn about tourism management?

I can’t tell you an exact answer to this question. I can only tell you my own feelings.

I have been studying for 4 years. I have almost forgotten some things about travel agencies and hotels. I only remember the general framework. But after I came into contact with related industries, I found that practical operation and theory are completely different things.

But one thing has not been forgotten: the management idea and the research process.

My uncle once asked me: What is the use of studying management? Do you need to manage tourism? Even if you were really asked to manage them, would you be able to manage them if they were given a dozen people?

I have also thought about this problem. What I learned is Western management thought, and it is from a different perspective from our traditional management thought.

Our country’s management thinking is based on “people”, while Western management thinking is based on “things”.

This is my deepest feeling, so no matter how many people you ask to manage now, I cannot guarantee that I can manage them well, and I cannot promise that I can make it run smoothly if you give me relevant projects.

But I can guarantee that my thinking method is logical, as comprehensive as possible, has feedback, and is scientific.

I think the biggest difference between an undergraduate and a junior college student is not reflected in technology, but in the way of thinking.

4. High-end employment in tourism management may follow a curve

Relatively high-end industries such as tourism planning and consulting are not something you can win just after you get started.

It is necessary to understand all aspects of information and have rich experience to support it.

You may come up with a good idea or a reliable process, but you may not be able to satisfy customers.

Because you lack accumulation and don’t know what they want.

At best, you have mastered a set of methodology, but you have no connotation to support it.

I have worked in travel agencies, hotels, and planning. I want to go through all the related industries that I can come into contact with, so that I can be grounded and have a solid foundation.

After all, tourism is a very comprehensive industry, so I hope I can complement myself so that I can have a relatively long-term development in this industry.

From this perspective, your future career may not necessarily be a dead end, you may need to jump around.

5. Suggestions to the poster

If you are sure you want to travel... taking the academic route may also be the best choice.

Scientific research is carried out in the school, and it is linked to the planning agency to do planning and consultation.

You can now look for "Journal of Tourism" and "Tourism Science", where many articles involve mathematical knowledge such as modeling.

It may be more relevant to you.

However, it is best to have experience studying abroad to take this path. Things in China are relatively backward.

However, if you are an economic person doing tourism, you may have some "losses".

6. Complaints

If you want to learn something in this industry, if there is no master to guide you, you have to rely on yourself.

There are too many things to learn. Take planning as an example. People who write copywriting may also need to be able to operate simple PS, CAD and GIS.

People who have no initiative will still be lazy everywhere. It’s not that you can’t learn anything in this industry, but that no matter how much you learn, you may feel it’s not enough.

If LZ wants to know the income, well... I saw Laiya's recruitment information this year. The annual salary for graduates is 10W~15W.

7. Benefits

I will provide everyone with a copy of my marketing notes, which are all made using mind maps, as shown in the picture below.

I won’t murder the traffic party here... Friends who are interested can check it out on my WeChat, name: Yue Xing Yueyuan, location: Notes - Marketing Notes.