Open University of Sri Lanka
DIPLOMA IN TOURISM OPERATIONS – 2021/2022
Reflective Learning Journal
Course Code: DSD3520
Student Name: T.R.L. Perera
Student Number: 621461172
Colombo Regional Centre
Contents
1.
Acknowledgement .............................................................................................................. 1
2.
Introduction to Tourism and Travel Operations ................................................................. 2
3.
Brief Introduction of Shan Air Travels & Tours (pvt) Ltd. Japan ...................................... 4
4.
Theoretical Facts................................................................................................................. 5
4.1. Introduction to Office Administration ............................................................................... 5
4.2. Communications Skills ..................................................................................................... 5
4.3. General communication skills........................................................................................... 5
4.4. Communication in the Office............................................................................................ 6
5.
The Practicality Level of HR operations witch had applied in a Japanese’s office ........... 9
5.1. What level of Practices I have done in that office during my stay in Japan. ..................... 9
5.2. The Methods of Recruitment Process in Japan ................................................................ 10
6.
Weaknesses in the organizational structure in Shan Air Travels & Tours (pvt) Ltd. Japan
20
7.
Recommendation for the Shan Air Travels & Tours (pvt) Ltd. Japan. ............................ 23
8.
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 25
9.
Appendices. ...................................................................................................................... 26
10. Reference ......................................................................................................................... 27
1. Acknowledgement
Special thanks our lecturer Mr. Nizam Lantra who had given us a amazing support
throughout this program enriched our mind with the theoretical and practical knowledge of
Tourism and Travel operations and how they are used in the working world. Furthermore
during this pandemic period he gave us hope. I admire his passion and the way he taught us
to see a clear picture how to do tasks in correct ways .Also all the other lecture’s as well who
hand given us the knowledge and the skills and show us the path. Tourism Operations are not
as easy as we speak in words it needs to be carefully planed and well established.
1
2. Introduction
The Diploma in Tourism Operations is a one year programme consisting of two
semesters. The subjects covered in these two semesters are:
1st Semester
Course Code
Course Title
DSD3309
Introduction to Tourism
DSD3410
Geography and History of Tourism
DSD3411
Tourism Economics
DSD3412
Tourism Marketing
2nd Semester – Stream A
Course Code
Course Title
DSD3413
Accommodation and Reception Operation
DSD3414
Food & Beverages Operations
DSD3415
Food Production and Culinary Art
DSD3516
Practical Training – Tourism & Hotel
Operation
2nd Semester – Stream B
DSD3417
Leisure and Tourism Resources
DSD3418
Travel and Tourism Operations
DSD3219
Airline Ticketing
DSD3520
Practical Training – Tourism & Travel
Operations
2
I have opted to take Stream B for this programme.
When we look at Tourism and Travel Operations it is a deep subject that caters to
capture minds and hearts of National to Interracial level of Tourist who has different purpose
to travel maybe with in the country or out of it as well.
The main purpose of
Travel and Tourism Operations are to generate and
retain foreign exchange and earnings thought
an appropriate human/ employee force, which
gives the maximum individual contribution to the Tourism Sector.
In other words to generate future job opportunities, as well as have productive level of human
capital can be used to capture , Tourist desire by giving them a excellent tourist products as
well.
Further more to illustrate in Tourism and Travel Operation’s
these main function take
high roll of any organization witch is reflated From National to International level.
Let us
know that Tourism and Travel Operations place different roll in each and every organization
in different manner the following functions that are most important in Travel and Tourism
operation’s ,

Leisure and Tourism Resources.

Travel and Tour Operation’s.

Airline Ticketing.

Office Administration’s.

Human resource management.
Above functions played a huge rolls in Tourism and Travel Operations
3
3. Brief Introduction of Shan Air Travels & Tours (Pvt) Ltd. Japan
Shan Air Travels & Tours (Pvt) Ltd, its mission in focus to provide total security solutions in
meeting clients’ needs to carry out and Provide Excellent Customer Service with in the japan
to National to International level of Customers. Address T 301-0836
Ibaraki Ken Ryugaski shi 21 sunheights 3780-1 seiki 1f japan K I J Dias. There were 20
Employees working in that office and I must say it was a great experience to work in a
Japanese Office. I must say compare to Sri Lanka even though the office was small but the
productivity was outstanding and that level of productivity I have never seen in Sri Lanka.
The above chart represents the Shan Air Travels & Tours (pvt) Ltd. Japan.
4
4. Theoretical Facts
4.1. Introduction to Office Administration
One of the most important function in any organization is it Office Administrations for
example we can take as communication skills in an office, the structure of an office and
effective organization, filing, maintaining
Records, ensuring follow up, meeting skills, preparation of minutes and memos, emails
and summarizing,
Working in teams, introduction to basic accounting and financial management and
Human Recourse Management as well.
.
Let us explore one by one how these processes works accordingly.
4.2. Communications Skills
First of all we need to know what is communication in an office is about and how
effective this process works. We can categories general to, office and standardization,
Communication let us see one by one what is about.
4.3. General communication skills
Ability to listen to the total message

Use appropriate gestures, postures, and facial expressions

Maintain courteousness

Maintain precision and propriety

Ability to restate major ideas expressed

Dealing with customer complaints

Use of appropriate open and close-ended questions

When we speaking general term above facts are very important and need to practice
and be master at it as well.
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4.4. Communication in the Office
We must understand communication is an office daily base is not easy we have verbal to no
verbal as well .We must learn to use office Equipment to do our task accurately and save
time as well following key facts will show you.

Familiarization with modern equipment and effective usage of photocopier, scanner,
fax,
Modern telephone/smartphone

Recording instructions
- Using recording media, and planning action
- Use of the telephone and telephone etiquette
- Correct formats and procedure for internal and external correspondence,
Memos and faxes
- Correspondence by email
- Productive methods in using telephone, correspondence, and email.
4.5. Standardization Communication
Under this category

Standard paper and envelope sizes and how they should be used

Standards for date, time, units, etc. including standards for memos, letters, reports

Memo, letter, and Report writing

Types of internal memos and circulars and how they should be handled

Responding to letters and memos
Above facts clearly play a very important roll in any office admiration operations to run
smoothly and accurately?
6
4.6. Human Resource Management.
When we look at Human Resource Management in a clear point of view we can take
as the efficient and effective utilization of human resources to achieve goals of an
organization.
The main purpose of human recourse management is to generate and retain an
appropriate human/ employee force, which gives the maximum individual contribution to
organizational success.
We can divided human resource management into two categories goals and abject of
human resource management.
Goals of HRM
 To improve employee productivity
 Employee development
 To increase quality of work life (QWL)
Objectives of HRM
 To procure right people at the right time
to do the right job
 To
retain
the
more
appropriate
employees within the organization
 To get and improve the employee
commitment
 To ensure legal compliance
 To motivate employees
 To ensure customer compliance
 To control the cost of employees
Further more to illustrate in human resource management this main function take high
roll of an organization. Let us know that human resource management place different roll in
each and every organization in different manner the following functions that are most
important in human resource management are

Human Resource planning and recruitment, interviewing candidates.

Training and developing employees.

Performance management and appraisal.

Compensation management.

Couching carrier and talent management.

Ethics, justice, and faire treatment in HR management.

Employees’ safety and health.
7
Further more in Travel and Tourism Operations HR plays a high roll due to selecting the
right candidate and give appropriate training not present purpose but for future job
opportunity’s as well. Unfortunately this roll has taken of granted and if it is not use properly
any organization will fall in a short period of time as
8
5. The Practicality Level of HR operations witch had applied in a Japanese’s office
Let us examine the practicality level of HR Operations witch I had been using while I
was working as employee in a Japanese office this experiences has it advantage and
disadvantage’s as well. Let me explain as we know Japan is very fast developing country
technologically advance and give higher service. During my stay I got rare opportunity work
in an office as HR assistant, as I mention when working in Sri Lanka as the same title job is
not as I had work as in Japan. We must speak and communicate under Japanese’s Language
from verbal form to written as well .And the down side of this not every foreigner is not
fluently master in Japanese, so finding a job is very difficult in japan if you don’t know the
language to a level 3 point. In my office I had work with Japanese and Sri Lankans because
my CEO was Sri Lankan he always likes to give a chance to fellow Sri Lankan.
5.1. What level of Practices I have done in that office during my stay in Japan.
According to my past experiences I was recruited in 2018 in the Moth of May 12th
As HR assassinates my task are will be show cases below.
 Helping with Job post for higher new employees.
 Calling short listed Candidates for Interviews
 Updating HRM System
 On boarding new employees to the origination.
 Even have to help with administration department as well
 Keep a record of employees information in excel sheet manner

Must prepare questions and interview candidate for the right job
 Properly use Modern Communication tools like line for example
9
5.2. The Methods of Recruitment Process in Japan
We all know the recruitment process is very key as pact of any origination .Companies
must execute proper staffing strategies and forecasting to ascertain the number of
employees they will require before hiring. I must carefully understand this process two
factors I need to be consider.

Internal factors
 Budget constraints
 Production level

External factors
 Changes in technology
 Location demographics
Once s that is understood, staffing plan’s need to be executed
I must do a job analysis this is formal system developed to determine what tasks people
perform in their jobs in my office.
Then I must write a job description
The next stage of this recruitment process to develop a job description ,which should I
must outline a list of task duties ,and responsibilities of the job .for example I was given
a task to create post for a travel agent and I must write that job description in Japanese.
Writing in English is very easy but Japanese that is another level of skill.
I must understand the laws relating to recruitment
In japan mostly student who seek par time job can work for 24 hours per day this
different from province to province so our management team mention us to be careful.
Most Sri Lankan come to Japan by student visa and do many par time works get short
term minded to get money because compare to Sri Lanka part time workers salary is
higher than manager who works in Sri Lanka.
Then finally develop a recruitment plan
10
A successful recruitment plan includes actionable steps and strategies that make the
recruitment process efficient .This is theoretically easy to written in exam paper get a
A,B C marks .But as HR practitioner I must consider the recruitment costs as well .
For example following figure show case
Cost per hire = advertising costs + recruiter costs + referral costs + social media costs +
event costs.
Let me give a example if you received two hundred resumes from online advert and fifty
two of those make it to the interview stage ,this means a 26% yield (52/200).
But Japan is bit traditionally minded so they mostly advertise their job post in
magazines. One famous magazine is call town work magazine very famous among
students looking for pastime work. I will show a picture of this.
11
Above picture show case about the magazine you can find this easily in Seven eleven
convenient store you can get it free as well.
Also another process we do is campus recruiting we can offer entry level position job
offer to them in contract based as well.
When doing this task is not a very easy task because I need be assure to get the right
candidate for the job.
One’s that is been done we for the selection process take place in five distinct aspects

Criteria development

Application and resume /CV review

Interviewing

Test administrations

Making the offer
This how the selection process work goes in any HR practitioner would need to know
very well.
Let me explain you one by one
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
Criteria development
 Under this usually involves discussing which skills, abilities, and personal
characteristics are required to be successful at any given job in the office.
 We check their education back ground, and pervious job experiences.
 This is very important point must be considering carefully plan as well.
 Being an HR is always about going under the grain has to take lot of time to
master skills.

Applications and Resume /CV Review
This is very interesting because most Japanese cv are hand written and they must
have format as well .In Sri Lanka I was doing HR every day most cv came through
Liken or Top Jobs. But Japan you have to do it manually and it must be written in
Japanese as well .every detail must be written carefully. But end of the day only short
listed candidates are call for the interview.
I will show you a Japanese type of CV to get a clear picture.
13
Above picture will give an idea what is a Japanese CV is you can by from Japanese
Convenient shops as well.
Let me explain you further more in basic rirekisho is generally accepted for en try level
candidates or students, who do not have long work experiences ,but if I want to say most Sri
Lankans who applied did had long period of work history but they came in student visa.
And another key factor is each resume should be adopted to the position and company so in
another words jobseeker should not photocopy their resume so this another way of seeing
are this jobseeker is serous about the job.
Another key factor is recruitment regulation when we speak about this only traditional hand
written rirekisho
An essential aspect of Japanese resumes to consider when it comes to writing the education
or job history that all dated experiences should be written in chronological order. In other
words chronological resume style.
If we ask why this is most Japanese employers prefer to see the Japanese date style.
So writing a Japanese resume is not easy than writing a 1000 words written essay.
Last but not least Reasons for applying /Motivation
We must see why this jobseeker wants this job what us his motivation for applying this. I
have never seen this in a Sri Lankan CV at all and we must also have to say expectation of
the new role .salary as well.
So you have to go some procedures to find Job in Japan is not easy as we think.

Interviewing process
When we talk about this we have two way of interviewing the candidate
Telephone Interviewing
Panel Interviewing
But not that there are other ways to analyses a candidates potential for example giving them a
task regarding their job to do and see as well.
14
When we talk about interviewing we must have a plan as well.

Develop Interview questions based on analysis

Set a timeline for interviewing and decision making

Connect schedules with others involved in interview process

Interview the candidates and perform any necessary testing

Once all results are back meet with the hiring team to discuss each candidate and
make a decision based on the established criteria.
Following Document contain the type of questions we ask from our employees when they
come for an interview.
Interview Questions for Travel Executives.
● We’re glad to welcome you for this interview here today. I hope you are ready for
your interview before we move any further. I want to know something. How do you
feel?
● So you will be interviewed by Person 1 (Designation) and Person 2 (Designation)
today and I hope you are ready.
1. Let’s start with a brief introduction of yourself
2. Experience: Where have you worked before and what is your current employment
status.
3. Experience in terms of the job. Have they done similar jobs before
4. Do you fully understand the job role and your responsibilities as a Travel Executive?
5. Why do you want to work here?
6. Why should we pick you from the list?
7. Strengths and weaknesses you see in yourself?
These questions are very specially designs to see how well are they fit for the job roll and
how serious are they about the job as well.
But in any Interviews we can categories two type of questions
1. Situational Interview Question.
2. Behavior Description Interview Questions.
15
For example
Regarding Situational based question
What would you do if a customer did not have as he or she was not pleased or the booking of
ticket last minute change has to charge a upgrade price as ticketing officer what would you
do?
This kind of Inquiry evaluates the candidate’s ability, knowledge, experiences, and judgment.
Lets take another situation working in office is very complex process not every on is your
friend and there is always people out there to make you feel suffer.
you have to work with some female coworkers, but they don’t like you at all they try to put
you down mentally day by day or even worse blame on you for something you have not done
how will you handle this issue?
You disagree with your supervisor she is always been a gender biased and not consider this
matter fairly what would you do.?
16
Above details given there is how we test our candidate’s capabilities.
Behaviors Description Interview Questions
In this sort of Interview, the premise is that someone’s past experiences or behaviors are
predictive of future behavior. These types of questions tend to assist the interviews in
knowing how a person would handle or has handled situations.
Let us see some examples
Tell me what was your hardest decision you had ever made in your life?
How did you handle this process?
How do you deal with an angry Client?
What accomplishment have given you the most pride and why?
Above examples shows how is a behavior interview process going through,
Tips for Effective Interviewing
The following tips should be taken into consideration when conducting interviews
Interview questions about national origin, martial status, age, religion, and disabilities are
illegal. To avoid any legal issues, Interviewers need to be trained on witch questions cannot
be ask unfortunately in Sri Lanka this not the same during my days as HR Practitioner I have
witness this countless time. This is disrespect for the profession as well.
Listen to the candidates and try to develop a rapport with them. Understand how nervous they
must be and try to put them at ease.
Be realistic about the job .Do not try to paint “rosy” picture of all aspects of the job .Being
truthful up front enables an applicant to understand exactly what they will face once they start
their work.
Be aware of your stereotypes and do not let them affect how you view a potential candidate.
Watch your body language during the interview and that of the candidate,
Stick to your criteria for hiring .Do not asks questions that have not been predetermine in
your criteria.
17
Learn to mange disagreement and determine a fair process if not everyone on the
interviewing team aggress on who should be hire.
Watch your body language during the interview and that of the candidate .Body language is a
powerful tool in seeing of someone is the night fit for the job.
Testing and selecting
Once way to monitor this KSAO s Knowledge, Skills, Ability and other characteristics)
The major categories of tests include the following
 Cognitive ability tests

Personality Tests

Physical Ability Tests

Job knowledge Tests

Work Sample
But I must have to add some points we have to consider more as well
Following Questions can be taken
What was the title and responsibilities of the position the candidate had while at your
company
Dose this person show up on time and have good attendance?
Does this person Show up on time and have good attendance?
Would you consider this person a team player?
Would you rehire this person?
Managing Employees Retention in a Japanese office
When it comes to this situation we must understand most people leave company because
they are not satisfied what they do or they don’t feel appreciate But there is more to that than
meet the eye let us see what are they
18
 Poor job –person fit this is a poor match between the job and skills of the employee. This a
very common and serous issue once thing I have identified as some Sri Lankans which
have applied have work in different level of job and they don’t go with current job because
.Japanese working life in a office is very much fast always need to do right and get stress
and want to leave I have seen this many time .
 Lack of growth some employees feel “stuck “in their job.
 Workload yes the workload is very high in Japanese offices and I have to say I even work
over time so many time.
Once key note I must high light in Japan there was no any performance Appraisals was found
because they want to see any person work as them same level and same capability so
sometimes that is a disadvantage as well. Why if may say everyone has a unique skills and
talent that can be utilized to give maximum productivity to the office and to the employees
future as well.
Further more to support what I say most employees
find difficult to communicate in
Japanese and they feel they don’t have that language skills .And they some time do another
par time jobs to earn capital so they feel very stress all the time.
Once particular case I need to mention is that one employee she start to work from the month
of June her working productivity was low when carefully examine the case she was doing
another job as a Cashier in Seven Eleven Convenient shop so she was very tired and she is
also going to collage as well .unfortunately it became worse. She was a Sri Lankan then she
stop coming to work and we did not heard from her ever again
19
6. Weaknesses in the organizational structure in Shan Air Travels & Tours (pvt) Ltd.
Japan
The reporting hierarchy of this structure could be improved as according to the current
structure Admin is overlooking number of major functions at the company and therefore it
can be caused to the effectiveness of the current operation.
The effectiveness and the efficiency can be improved by re- arranging the reporting
hierarchy of Marketing, Accounting, and HR separately directly to the CEO or to a General
Manager.

No proper HR professional to handle HR functions
HR professional to handle HR related work and Admin heads’ interest is mostly in
handling Admin related work rather improving HR functions in the company as he is not a
HR qualified person and not with previous HR experience. And also he does not have much
time to handle other work as he is loaded with HR, Accounts and marketing related work
apart from his admin duties and responsibilities. So this is a critical change which needs to be
considered by the management and it will support them to increase the effectiveness and
efficiency of the company.
20
In this case the department is not fully functional since most of the employees
in administered department also must work in HR department they are not title to one
department employees quickly get feed up at work and lost most of internal
employees with in the company.

HR records are maintained manually and not using a digitalized HR system

You can say since they have a staff head count of 20 it is difficult to maintain all
records manually and not practical also.

Due to the manual system the records are not properly filled or maintained currently
and therefore there is a huge risk in misplacing the records and then you can suggest
to introducing of a HR system will be more effective in organize their HR records in a
methodical manner
And also it helps the management to view necessary data or record sheet in a digital plat form
within a short period rather requesting manual records from the HR department and it is a
time consuming process. And also it would help them to make quick decisions.

This a very serious issue this make the company don’t know what level are their
employees are or no any data record about their HR function with in the company this
cause lot of time and efficient is Wasted further more employees work is very hard as
well if they lost hard copy of documents they don’t have any back of that as well.

HR manager is not a qualified person or with previous HR experience limited in
practice in HR functions in the company.
His first appointment and therefore he does not have previous HR experience
and he is still at the learning curve in the HR field. But if they can give him a proper
training in HR functions and guide him to obtain some HR qualification it would be
helpful for him to improve HR practices at the company
I had witness he is not fully do his role as HR only follow what CEO tell him
to do so when making decision he has no room or he don’t use is knowledge as HR
this cause the roll in the company very less important . .

Not having a proper idea of (H.R.P)
I have witness countless time they don’t make good strategies to achieve these needs
for the purpose of accomplishing or organization goals and objective.
21

Lack of knowledge in Basic HR Operations
They are not taking this seriously HR manager has no idea this function can bring lot
of advantages for the company and employees.

Not giving much consideration for employees feed back.
Finally employees are not giving time to develop or to identify their skills or
positional they will feel less about them self they will only trap in mentally break
down this cause they will never enrich their true potential so there is no win win for
both party company and employees.
22
7. Recommendation for the Shan Air Travels & Tours (pvt) Ltd. Japan.
7.1. strongly recommend they should update organizations structure I had made an update
on please see in it appendix
this will give them a benefit of each department
employees work on that particular department this cause employees to work stress
free and has the liberty to do his job according to the job roll on that department
productive will increased.
7.2. Encourage paperless working system suggest HR department need to have a
computerize system to track their employees records about their job in the company
and they are fully cable to do their work and the HR can identify their employees
weakness and give training according to that and also see his progress according to
the data in the HR department computer system this also can help if they lost hard
copy HR manger has soft copy’s in his computer.
7.3. suggest by providing new employees a guide book they will learn about the
procedure’s and protocol’s about the company and follow them, this can help the to
see the company goals and target so they will work according to that and function
well less supervision on the employees.
7.4. Suggest allocating a sufficient amount annually in the budget for training and
development of staff members and making sure the budgeted amount is used during
the financial year.
7.5. Also recommend they should have new training plan and have them updated with
latest protocols in Travel operations.
7.6. Suggest introducing a training feedback form so then the HR head can easily
analyze the outcomes of the training given.
7.7. HR manger should not limited his roll as HR practitioner in HR function in the
company.AS HR manger he should do his job roll with out getting any limited
capacity for making decision on HR based subject or employees he will feel much
satisfied to do his job not feel less important about him self as well.
7.8. Can suggest that the top management can review training and development details
of the company quarterly by obtaining related information from the HR department
23
7.9. Suggest getting qualified staff or train employees internally about HR in company
and put them in future job rolls like HR assistant HR assistant managers. This very
important just in cased if the HR manger could not repot to work due to unavoidable
issue .there is no one to filed his job or to run HR operation so if they had trained a
employee giving chance to gain paper qualification with practical knowledge
he
can run the HR operation in HR mangers absent also training and development must
be used hand in hand not only catered to one furcation.
24
8. Conclusion
According to my field knowledge witch had gather during my work in this company they
don’t give much value to understand what Human Resources truly mean and how important
to any organization. Unfortunately due to corrupt practices and putting unqualified employees
to the company the productivity was taken down. If the HR manger able to apply what I had
suggest for the company would be able to make an excellent come back. I really want to
show case how import is HR operations in Tourism operations. Because you need to higher
the right candidate for the job to give customer a better service well as provide better
opportunities for the future employees in the sector as well.
25
8. Appendices Update Organizations Structure Shan Air Travels & Tours (pvt) Ltd.
Japan
26
9. Reference
The Open University of Sri Lanka
Short Course in Tourism and Hotel Operations (Conducted from 20th March 2020 to 15th May
2020)
Short Course in Human Resource Management (Conducted from 14th February 2021 to 29th
July 2021)
Alison UK
Diploma in Human Resource Management (Completed in 2022 October 16th)
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