Tourism & The New Generation- by Najwan Al-Khatib
In a world of hustle and bustle and moving forward, tourism in Jordan is on the edge of being ceased. The reference here is of course not about a Natural Disaster of our precious Sites and Antiquities, but actually of the people working in the field.
As we go on into the path to the future, the people who are passionate about tourism are diminishing into a façade hardly being seen. We “if you may” of the elder generation, see the disappointing newborns every day. We struggle to see passion and compassion in this field of newborns, let alone the actual struggle in finding any hard working human being.
It saddens me to see the new generation of us come and leave work only because it is just a “job to pay the bills” and not because they truly believe in what they do. They clock in, clock out, they work, but one fails to see in their eyes the sparkle and twinkle in what they are doing. Dare I think that this is a disease in all fields or is it only in tourism?!
I recall a time when I was hired, and I remember that I have never asked questions when I was interviewed. I remember being shy, and I politely attended to what is being said. I remember being told what the job was, days, time… Full Stop… Never had I asked about vacations, public holidays, salary (you took what you got, to start), rights, or any such thing. I would like to savor this precious time when we as graduates wanted to work, and work, we only wanted. We then went through difficult times of the Intifada in 2000, September 11th, 2001 and life was indeed challenging… We nonetheless, never complained, never stopped and most importantly we never ever gave up… Those were very tough times for all, and we, we survived… We tilted our heads and pounded through… Isn’t that what life is all about?
In this day and time, many of the interviewees -I regret to say- come into the interview thinking they hold an upper hand… Who taught them that I do not know? Some even come in and lay a carpet of roses and heavenly scents and when indeed hired, one would be shocked to learn the miserable opposite truth. You would observe youngsters that want to be “something” so quickly that they lose sight of the path and end up destroying themselves. Some of them claim pride, but there is a thin almost invisible line between pride and stupid arrogance, and no matter how much you coach and teach them to be patient to make it in life itself, the “pride” wins and all investment in this valuable human is lost.
Let us talk about English: Every single CV has this item listed as “Excellent” and once in the interview and exam, OH the shaming truth! It leads me to believe that our schools and universities are not focusing on such an important matter or that the interviewee thinks he/she will get away with it, or that he/she believes that his/her English is indeed excellent! Conclusion: False information, lower chance for success.
Let’s talk about the concept of Tourism itself: Tourism involves many aspects, and is not only Sites, and History. It is culture, it is heritage, it is food, and it is dealing with different people and personalities. It is inspections and learning about one’s job, it is stepping on unfamiliar territories we might not be used to; it is passion for the country and believing in what you do. If you do indeed choose the field, then you should prepare yourself for hard work and endless hours of trying and trying and trying again. You should prepare yourself for life: Success, Failure, Success, Failure… because life isn’t a steady ladder only going up, it is a roller coaster of ups and down and obstacles… The smart are those who fall, pick themselves up and walk on.
Let’s talk about the Etiquette of Tourism: In viewing and examining what we have in the field either it be inbound or outbound, many of our people are, in my point of view, mercenaries for making money. Forget customer serving, forget that we are frontiers to our beloved country, forget morals to our guests and even between us as colleagues; it is how much money one can make. In a perfect world, we would all stay within our boundaries; expand in new areas no one treaded on, hence rising and being pioneers. But then again this would be a perfect world!
I would like to be humored with an incident: I booked seats on one of the chartered flights… long story short, the guests had a problem in their return flight back to Amman. It seems the charter’s information disappeared, and there was no information at the country of departure. Guests panicked and phones were ringing. I had two emergency mobile numbers for the travel agency I booked with… No one answered. I called the land line… No one answered. I drove in person to the office… Office was closed; it was 10:00 AM. I asked the neighbors, and their advice was that sometimes they open Saturday and sometimes they do not (no exact rules)… A person steps out of a car and someone pointed out that he works in this office. The sad truth: Low rise shabby jeans, hardly awake, cup of stale coffee and the worst part is that although I was a client, the attitude was hopelessly rude. Answer was: “What do you want me to do???” After shouting, he calls the “superiors”, and no one has a clue of what is going on… This, my dear readers, is the frontier of our country and is the face of tourism. GOD have mercy on us all!
The good news in all this is that we as elders are still there to teach as much as possible and to extend every single information we have, and hand it down to those coming on board; and most importantly, to plant a seed of love and passion for our field and hopefully there are some who will blossom to be ever greener and greater than us.
Najwan Al-Khatib (MISS)
United Travel Agency
21/01/2015