The tourism and hospitality industry is a vast one - encompassing markets as diverse as hotels, clubs and resorts, airlines, tourist and leisure attractions, travel retail, tourism promotion, MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions), food and beverage services and many more!

Today, the industry is a widely dispersed economic giant. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a major organisation representing the global tourism industry, tourism now accounts directly and indirectly for more than 200 million jobs worldwide.

During the turn of the new millennium, hospitality and tourism businesses accounted for 6% of the global economy or US$8 trillion. In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region looks especially promising with increasing liberalisation of markets like China, India and the Mekong Region.

Given that the essence of tourism and hospitality lies with the delivery of the experience, the development of skilled manpower for this industry is crucial. Hence, the need for tertiary-level education courses and research in hospitality and tourism has increased over the past few years and in more years to come.

On this island, over 150,000 people work in tourism-related jobs, serving the over 7 millions overseas visitors. Globally, in terms of tourist receipts, Singapore is up amongst the top destinations. In Asia, Singapore leads in the area of MICE. Singapore has many as successful businesses like Singapore Airlines and the Changi Airport, which have repeatedly won accolades as being the world’s best. The Singapore Zoological garden and the Night Safari have effectively carved out their own niche and are world-class attractions. Sentosa, Singapore’s resort island, received over 3 million visitors in every year.

The hospitality and tourism industry is set to grow globally; employability of suitably qualified graduates will only be enhanced with such prospects.

With a Diploma in Hospitality & Tourism Business, graduates can find jobs as middle managers in hotels, customer-service executives at airports, planners in travel companies, marketing executives in tourism promotion boards, and more. Graduates are going places, from being in the thick of the operations in a cruise liner to a professional in the catering business, and from becoming one’s own boss in a food and beverage outlet to an event planner.