{"id":2115,"date":"2016-10-15T17:45:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-15T16:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=2115"},"modified":"2017-06-19T12:08:10","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T11:08:10","slug":"hospitality-is-a-mind-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/hospitality-is-a-mind-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospitality is a mind game"},"content":{"rendered":"\u4e2d\u6587\u6458\u8981 \/ Summary in Chinese<\/span>\n

\u201cImagine your superiors repeatedly reject your ideas: your efforts are hardly appreciated by them. \u2018I am always given the most insignificant tasks,\u2019 you think. You are really upset and starting to feel frustrated. You begin to wonder: \u2018Is hospitality the right career for me?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

EK Hospitality Services Consulting General Manager and Principal Consultant, Ms. Katherine Wong, says the above scenario can take place in the mind of a new graduate that has just joined the hospitality sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore important than professional skills, new graduates need to have characteristics such as humility, determination and patience,\u201d Ms. Wong says. \u201cThese are some of the many traits one needs, to fully enjoy the vibrancy and diversity of the industry,\u201d she adds. <\/p>\n

Ms. Wong\u2019s 3 decades in the hotel business have taught her the secrets young graduates starting off in hospitality need to learn in order to achieve success. She gave a lecture on the topic in September to Year 2 IFT students studying Hotel Management and Tourism Event Management.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wong suggests new graduates should understand that building a career in hospitality is demanding. \u201cThose who persevere, exercise self-discipline and work hard are the ones who will enjoy the highest levels of job satisfaction and sense of achievement,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Maturity in outlook plays a vital part, allowing those working in the industry to display care, respect, kindness, friendliness and humility to customers in all circumstances, Ms. Wong says. \u201cThese are key elements that will effectively help you connect with others and this is what hospitality is primarily all about: you connecting with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Wong adds she would like to see more industry leaders investing in inspiring, guiding and leading the new entrants in the hospitality sector.<\/p>\n

Promising trend<\/strong><\/p>\n

All the hard work is worthwhile because hospitality offers promising opportunities in spite of the uncertainty of the outlook for the global economy, Ms. Wong says. \u201cThe skies are opening up and people do travel, so you definitely need accommodation and other related services to support them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wong points out that lifestyle businesses and food and beverage businesses in Macao are flourishing as people are drawn to the city to enjoy the products these sectors offer. \u201cSome big players are now investing more in turning Macao into a food and beverage hub. Some Hong Kong visitors have already been lured over at the weekend for a short stay,\u201d she says. \u201cI see that becoming a trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Wong graduated from the University of London with a bachelor degree in Mathematics. She had no knowledge of the hotel business when she began her career in hospitality. She says that is something that makes her believe that anyone can succeed in the industry if they have a strong desire to serve others. She built her industry knowledge from working at hospitality group Starwood Hotels and Resorts and in various hotels, notably the Mandarin Orchard Singapore and the Marco Polo Prince Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

In the light of her own experience, Ms. Wong\u2019s advice to IFT graduates is to be patient in building a career in a hotel. \u201cThink like the business owners and like your general manager thinks if you want to be marketable and sustainable in your organisation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cImagine your superiors repeatedly reject your ideas: your efforts are hardly appreciated by them. \u2018I am always given the most insignificant tasks,\u2019 you think. You are really upset and starting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[260,185,252,261,259,93],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-degrees-offered-in-english","tag-ek-hospitality-services","tag-hospitality","tag-hotel","tag-hotel-management","tag-katherine-wong","tag-tourism-event-management"],"views":1081,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2115"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2120,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions\/2120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}