In a new piece, Student Ambassador Zi Yi Ho from Malaysia talks about her experience studying Tourism with Event Management at the Institute of Technology Sligo.
I am an International Tourism with Event Management student at IT Sligo who is always enthusiastic about exploring new skills and knowledge. Below are my top four reasons why studying BBs Tourism with Event Management is hugely beneficial for me:
Course details
I chose my course because I enjoy travelling and working with people. This course includes a six-month work placement in Ireland or abroad working in tourism or event-related environments. The course includes site visits to tourism firms within the region which offers an important aspect to the course. Students may, if they wish, choose to study a foreign language such as Spanish, French, German or Italian.
Hands-on experience
There are lots of interesting elective subjects to pick, one of the interesting electives I have gotten involved in is “Introduction to Archaeology”. Students are able to participate in the labs, exploring different objects that people created, modified or used. Therefore, I can understand the lessons better.
Artifacts from Archaeology Subject (photo: Zi Yi Ho)
Outdoor exploring and gaining knowledge
Lecturers bring students to attend tourism site visits or talk with tourism enterprise owners or managers. For example, in the “Tourism Field Trips and Seminars” subject, we are required to detail the background & funding of business start-up, day to day operations, marketing of the business, relevant legislation, future development of enterprise and industry trends after visiting the place. I’m not only going out for fun, but I learn a different perspective from the tourism business. The picture below is one of the outdoor activities I participated in, full of adventure and fun!
Team Building Activities (photo: Zi Yi Ho)
Fundamental knowledge
Besides all the outdoor activities and fun, the course equips me with fundamental knowledge and skills. During the time of learning, I can conduct independent research and literature review into an area of academic interest relevant to the tourism and event industry. My lecturers, who are caring and supportive of international students, helped me understand what we do and why. They are supportive and give advice with all the creativity from students – as creative as you can be.
I enjoy this course because of all the activities and new things I learn. The broad business knowledge and skills gained by completing this course will be rewarding in careers in a wide variety of areas such as Marketing, Management, Teaching and more to explore.