Tourism Bureau completes talent training program

The Tourism Bureau has completed a comprehensive talent training program for more than 1,700 staff member from the travel industry. The bureau will continue the program of sending selected staff abroad and hold domestic training to upgrade service standards.

After sending 70 workers for overseas training, an additional 100 attended courses held in the United States and Australia to take part in advanced studies concerning services in the fields of food, wine, hotel facilities, and management of theme parks and amusement parks.

Most took part in special courses offered by the Disney Group and Hawaii University in the U.S. and Australia while several others went to institutions in other nations to carry out study plans worked out by themselves,

On the domestic front, more than 1,600 travel industry employees attended a wide range of case studies sponsored by 150 corporations and the tourism departments of universities to acquire new knowledge for improving services at their own companies.

Janice Seh-jen Lai, director-general of the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, said there are increasing competition on the world tourism market.

The stepped-up personnel training programs are part of the plan to lift the travel services up to international standards and help attract more world tourists to the island and enjoy the unrivaled services offered by the travel industry during their stay in Taiwan, the heart of Asia, she said.

Lai said higher quality human resources is not just crucial to the success of individual enterprises in the tourism industry but is also crucial to the overall performance of Taiwan's industry.

She said the Tourism Bureau will continue assisting with the personnel training programs in 2012 and will also enhance the practical courses to be offered for tourism education in Taiwan.

The bureau's selection of participants in the new overseas training programs is set for February 2012 and the group study courses in Taiwan are set to start in May.

There will be extra openings for people who want to join the training programs with their own funds or with support from their corporations.

Officials of the bureau welcomed enterprises in Taiwan to jointly take part in the personnel training programs to ensure stronger competition for their own companies and the whole industry.

Source - chinapost.com.tw