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Introduction to hospitality and tourism
Tourism is one of the truly major industries in the world, closely
linked to the tourism industry, both industries work together to
provide a worthwhile career opportunity for millions of people
throughout the world; providing products and services
including food, beverage and accommodation to travellers and
local people alike.
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Working in tourism you will need:
Enthusiasm
A high standard of grooming and personal presentation
The ability to stay calm and work in an organised manner
Technical skills, such as: cooking or customer service
Good product knowledge – food and wine
The ability to work as part of a team
A service mentality
An ability to work in a multi-cultural environment
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Multicultural environment
Tourism is a real multi-cultural environment where customers
and staff are from all over the world.
You will find many tourism staff like to travel and because of the
world wide nature of the travel industry it is often quite easy to
gain employment around the world.
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What is the Tourism Sector all about?
There are basically two types of travellers in the tourism sector;
Business travellers and tourists.
These include areas such as:
Conferences
Natural features such as: beaches, mountains, forests, Great
Barrier Reef, Uluru, etc.
Complementary industries, such as the wine industry
Tours and sightseeing
Attractions, such as: theme parks, museums and theatre
shows
Sports and special events
Tour managers accompany tourists on extended touring
programs
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Tourism sector career paths
Possible job opportunities in tourism:
Conference coordinator
Managers of all sectors
Sales
Maintenance staff
Marketing
Cleaning staff
Customer service
Event management
Ticket sales
Security
Food and beverage
Flight attendants
Tour guides
Interpreters
Travel planning and sales (travel agent)
Conference manager
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Tourism
Theme parks
Tour companies
Travel agents
Casinos
Hotels
Airlines
Speciality venues
Art galleries
Reception venues
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Main tourism products
Accommodation
Security
Food and Liquor Service
Gaming
Entertainment
Transport
Recreation
Natural attractions
Wine
Theme parks
Relaxation
Speciality venues
Functions and Banquets
Events
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Add on services
Hire cars
Tours
Air services
Islands
Currency exchange
Tour guides
Travel insurance
Visa services
Duty free stores
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Where to get tourism information
Options for obtaining information:
Internet websites
Trade magazines
Trade shows
Friends and colleagues
Training courses
Visiting hospitality venues
TV travel and cooking shows
Newspapers
Magazines
Websites
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Visitor Information Centre
They will have information such as:
Local golf clubs
Galleries
Church services
Sporting events
Doctors
Festivals
Hospitals
Wineries
Dentists
Tourist attractions
Restaurants
Natural attractions
Banking facilities
The environment
Theme parks
Tours
Accommodation
Disability access to venues
History of the area
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Smartraveller
The Australian Federal Government has a website to advise
on travel to overseas countries.
Many countries around the world are politically unstable and
prone to war and violence.
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Activity 1
1. What tourism products and service are offer at your venue
or workplace?
2. What are some of the tourism jobs and positions people are
employed in at your workplace or venue?
3. Where is the closest Visitor Information Centre to your
Workplace or venue?
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Use tourism knowledge
Offer advice to clients
Provide extra services
Career
Tie ups
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Special needs
Be aware that guests may have special cultural, religious,
health or disability needs. In reality it is very difficult to
provide tourist information in every possible language,
cultural and disability situation.
However we need to treat all people with respect and
courtesy.
This may mean putting in a little extra time and effort but it is
well worth it.
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Hospitality and tourism laws and legislation
Many things in our society are governed by laws.
For example:
You need a licence to drive a car
You must be over 18 to buy alcohol
Businesses must provide a safe workplace
Workers must be paid a fair wage
Business and people must pay tax (if working)
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In Australia there are three levels of government which
administer government laws and legislation
Commonwealth
State
Local government
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Some of the other laws which cover the hospitality and
tourism sector are:
Workers' compensation
Anti-discrimination
Building regulations
Casinos
Consumer protection
Equal employment opportunity
Environmental laws
Food hygiene laws
Gaming
Health and hygiene
Liquor licensing
Trade practices
Workplace health and
safety/duty of care
Workplace relations
Taxation
Industrial relations (working
conditions)
Child sex tourism laws
Tourism Service Act 2003
(Queensland)
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Businesses rights and responsibilities
Employer responsibilities:
To provide a safe working environment
To provide the product or service that they claim to provide
To pay all relevant taxes such as PAYG taxes from staff
wages, GST, payroll tax, liquor tax, etc.
Abide by the Food Act in your State
Abide by the Liquor act in your State
Pay staff the correct wages, superannuation
Provide staff the correct working conditions
Abide by the Trades Practices Act
Abide by anti-discrimination laws
Abiding by licensing trading hours and practices
To carry out business in an honest and ethical way
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Employee rights (but not limited to)
To be paid according to the correct Award or Agreement
To have a safe and secure working environment
To have a workplace free of discrimination and harassment
Employee responsibilities (but not limited to)
Carry out their workplace duties of the job role they have
Follow workplace health and safety requirements and not put
others at risk
Treat others in a respectful, non-discriminatory and nonharassing way
To act with honesty and integrity in carrying out workplace
duties
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The Travel Insurance Compensation Fund
The Travel Compensation Fund is Australia's primary means of
providing compensation to eligible travellers who suffer loss as
a result of the financial collapse of a participating travel agency
business.
Travel consumers should make travel arrangements only
through agents which are licensed participants of the Travel
Compensation Fund.
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INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND TRADES UNIONS
A Trades Union is a collective organisation like a Club; it
represents its members in negotiations and discussions with
management.
The common discussions include wages, working conditions,
OHS, job security and bullying and harassment issues.
THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION OF TRAVEL AGENTS –
AFTA
The Australian Federation of Travel Agents is the peak body
representing travel agents in Australia.
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Working conditions
The tourism and hospitality industry is made up of two distinctive
groups of workers:
Those who work on a full time permanent basis and have a
career in hospitality
Those who may consider their career elsewhere but work on a
part time or casual basis, such as: a student studying at
university working as a part time amusement ride operator.
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Anti Discrimination
Australia has very strict laws regarding employment
discrimination and any discrimination regarding the following
items is illegal:
Race
Sexual preference
Colour
Pregnancy
Sex
Religion
Mental disability
Political opinion
Marital status
Social origin
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Award
An Award is a set of minimum conditions negotiated between
the industry, union and government which set the terms of
employment for employees that the employer must follow.
An Enterprise Agreement
An Individual Agreement
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Modern Awards
Australia now has a system of ‘Modern Awards’
These Modern Awards commence from 1 January 2010.
Modern Awards create one set of minimum conditions for all
employees and employers across Australia. Staff may not be
paid less than, or have conditions below these Modern
Awards.
New modern awards:
General Industry Retail Award 2010 (travel agents)
Amusement Events and Recreational Award 2010 (theme
parks)
Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010
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Working conditions for permanent employees
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Working conditions for part time employees
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Working conditions for casual employees
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Public Holidays
Most Australian States have about 11 or 12 public holidays and
these are generally as follows:
New years day
Christmas day
Boxing day
Australia day
Good Friday
Easter Saturday
Easter Monday
ANZAC day
Queen’s birthday
Labour day
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Breaks
Staff rostered for longer than five hours are generally entitled
to a break from work duties.
Generally 10 to 15 minute ‘Coffee Breaks’ are taken during
paid time with 30, 45, or 60 minute meal breaks are in unpaid
time.
If staff members do not receive this break they may be entitled
to extra payments in the way of penalty rates.
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Overtime
When Full time or Part Time workers work extra hours
above their normal duties this is called ‘Overtime’ Full time
and part time staff, in the hospitality and tourism industries,
are required to work a reasonable amount of overtime.
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Annual Leave
Full time workers are entitled to 20 days leave per year for
continuous service.
In calculating ‘continuous service’ we must include the
following:
Annual leave
Public holidays
Long service leave
Sick leave
Bereavement leave
Leave while off following a workplace accident or injury
Temporary stand down where the employee was not at fault
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Other Worker Entitlements (costs to the employer)
Superannuation - (retirement benefit)
Superannuation is money that is paid into your personal
superannuation account that is invested and is only available
when you reach a certain age and retire. In Australia it is
COMPULSORY for employers to pay employees 9% of total
wages in superannuation if:
The employee is:
between 18 and 69 years old (inclusive)
are paid $450 (before tax) or more in salary or wages in a
month
work full-time, part-time or on a casual basis.
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Workers’ compensation
This pays the medical expenses and wages for the injured
worker
Training
Training is a legal responsibility of the employer. Usually training
is done within company time but often employees are flexible
with this as they can see that they also receive a benefit from the
training.
Uniforms and staff amenities
Some hospitality employers provide uniforms to staff and some
do not. You will find that larger employers tend to provide
uniforms while smaller employers tend not to provide uniforms.
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Activity 2
1. What Award or workplace agreement are you paid by in
your workplace?
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Resignation and termination
An employee is required to give advanced notice to an
employer if they resign.
This allows the employer to make arrangements to cover the
persons shift and allow business to continue un interrupted.
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Sources of industrial relations information
Information on the different workplace agreements is available
from any of the following places:
your employer
your State or Federal Government Department of Industrial
Relations
industry associations such as Chamber of Commerce and
Industry or the Australian Hotels Association
unions
Government or union websites
Government help telephone lines
solicitors
legal aid services
Other friends working in the same industry
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Equal employment opportunity
Equal employment opportunity (EEO) is the principle of equal
pay and conditions for all in the workplace; it involves
identifying and eliminating any discriminatory barriers that
cause inequality in the employment of any person or group of
persons.
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New Technologies
Internet services now easily available:
Book airline tickets
Book train tickets
Book hotel rooms
Buy travel insurance
Seek destination information
Buy theatre tickets
Read hotel and restaurant reviews
Travel blogs
Restaurant blogs
Sports and concert tickets
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Smartphones
New Smartphones and Smartphone apps have new
technologies which are being applied to more and more tasks
all the time.
Audio guides
Audio guides have been used for a long time at venues such as
museums and historical sites.
Tourism research bodies
There are a number of tourism research bodies that keep tract
of statistics and trends in tourism that can be referred to when
planning tourism products or providing tourism services.
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Update and maintain local knowledge
It helps if a specific person has been allocated responsibility to
update and share tourist information at the venue.
It is often one of those tasks that nobody really considers it their
job so it quite often does not get done and the information
becomes out of date very fast.
Visitor Information Centre
Visit
Feedback
Discuss
Read
Email list
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Activity 3
Looking through your visitor information files, you see that the
information for a tour company is two years old.
1. What do you do to update the information?
2. What information would you seek to update?
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Communication skills
Many things can go wrong in the hospitality industry from taking
the wrong order in a restaurant to reading the roster incorrectly
and not turning up to work when you are meant to be there.
Verbal communication involves questioning, listening and
answering.
Non-verbal communication involves body language, which
includes facial expression, eye contact and posture.
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Etiquette and good manners
Manners might seem old fashioned to some people but in the
tourist business manners are essential.
Call male guests “Sir” or use their name; Mr Smith.
Call female guests “Madam” or use their name; Mrs Smith.
Let the guest walk through a door first.
Hold open a door for a guest.
Say “Thank you”.
Listen when they talk.
Offer your help
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Handling customer complaints
Things do not always go according to plan and sometimes
customers are disappointed with our products and services.
Most customers understand this and give us an opportunity to
fix the problem but sometimes they do not and make a
complaint.
If their complaint is not attended to their satisfaction then the
customer will not return and will also probably tell their friends
about what a bad experience they had, leading to bad word of
mouth for your business.
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Active Listening
Active listening involves:
Hearing the speaker
Facing the person and looking at them in the eyes
Pay attention
Give feedback
Ask questions to clarify understanding
Take notes if appropriate
Show interest.
Use their name when talking to them
Smile if appropriate or at least do not look angry
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The six steps to handling a customer complaint
Listen
• Let the person making the complaint talk and tell you what the
problem is, do not interupt, just listen
Acknowledge
• Establish the exact nature of the complaint, ask questions if you
need to clarify the complaint. Acknowledge the complaint
Respond
Take Action
Report
Follow up
• Advise the customer of what you can do to resolve the
complaint. Check that this will satisfy the customer
• Take action to fix the complaint, (only take action you are
authorised to do)
• Report complaints to your supervisor if you cannot resolve the
situation yourself. Report referral to the customer
• Follow up with the customer to ensure that the complaint has
been resolved to their satisifaction. Complete company report
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Share information with colleagues
This may involve:
Making file notes.
Providing a memo update.
Removing old or out of date written material.
Sharing the information at a staff briefing or staff meeting.
Making changes to induction training.
Making changes to the hotel television channel.
An article in the staff newsletter.
An email to the relevant staff.
Verbally talking to staff.
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Taking accurate messages and notes
When taking telephone messages
Accurately write down the information.
Include the date and time the person called.
Include who the message is from and how they can be
contacted
Explain the message in a short, clear way.
Show your name and that you took the message.
Never argue with customers
Always end the call politely
Return telephone calls promptly!
Check your messages regularly
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Current tourism issues
Working conditions
High Australian dollar
Carbon tax
Economy
Skill shortage
Responsible service of alcohol
Internet.
Technology
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These PowerPoints are designed to match Version 1 of
the student resource.