It’s that time of year again! The annual BC Tourism Educators Conference is being held at Okanagan College and as per usual much debate, discussion, and learning is happening around key themes in tourism education.
First up this morning was Tom Baum from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. For over 36 years Tom has been seeking to address the social and strategic contexts of low skills employment, with particular focus on hospitality and tourism.
Dr Baum challenged us, as a group, to look at the future of work in tourism, by first looking at the past. He suggested that for decades we have been engaged in the same conversation around tourism employment issues: lack of meaningful pay, low-skilled work, and high turnover – to name a few. He referenced a quote by George Orwell who was a pot-washer (plongeur) in the Paris of 1933: “a plongeur is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work.”
The fact is that in 2018, if we take a global view, there are still many “plongeurs” in our industry. Dr Baum cited reports including:
Global hotel chains – making London an unethical tourist destination through ‘standard industry practice’ by Unite the union Hotel Workers’ Branch: UnethicalLondon
Wage Theft in Australia – finding of the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey: WageTheft
The great training robbery – assessing the first year of the apprenticeship levy: TrainingRobbery
Dr Baum shared findings from one document in particular, “Working for the Mouse”, in which they found that despite challenges including homelessness and extreme commutes, and yet over 85% of the workforce interviewed at Disneyland in Anaheim reported that they loved their jobs. You can read that report here: WorkingfortheMouse
So where to from here? Dr Baum’s presentation set the stage for a day of “backcasting” (also the process used by The Natural Step), in which we looked at the outcomes we want to produce in our institutions, communities, and industry.
Maik Uhlmann is a recent graduate of the BBA from Okanagan College, where he specialized in hospitality and tourism management and was a two-time Case Competition participant. Born and raised in Germany, Maik is now working as an admin for Cactus Club at their West Broadway location in Vancouver. I was lucky enough to catch up with Maik over coffee where we reflected on his education, his career, and where he’s headed.
Maik met me for coffee so we could nerd out about tourism.
Tourism Nerd: How did you end up in Canada?
I travelled around the world for four years and when I was in South America I thought “North America is the only place I haven’t been, I need to go there!”
So I applied for a working holiday visa to the United States and also for Canada, and … if I’m honest … Canada was quicker. I got the Canadian visa and now, eight years later, I’m still here!
TN: Did you ever think about going back to Germany?
After that first year in the Okanagan, having travelled the world, I hadn’t seen my family in four years. But going back to Germany I realized I’d changed, the people I grew up with changed. My hometown is old school: go to school, get married, have kids … I had other dreams I wanted to pursue.
I fell in love with Kelowna and wanted to stay, and the way that I could get back into the country was by being a student. If I’m honest, I never really wanted to study when I finished high school and getting a BBA was never my dream. But I did my research into UBCO and Okanagan College and when I looked at the reviews, considering the English programs are the same, why should I spend twice as much on the same course?
TN: So you became a full time OC student!
Okanagan College gave me a warm welcome. They have a good support network, and talking to advisors I learned more about the process (I had no idea how the school system even works here). After I finished my ESL courses, I applied for the diploma, which gave me two more years in my new community.
Two more years was all I could afford to do. But I was faced with the challenge of “this – the two year diploma – won’t be recognized back home.” So I talked to my parents and said “Mom and Dad, I’m sorry, I don’t want to come home” and after all those years of me being away, I think they realized that already. They said “ok, do a degree and then you will have an internationally-recognized credential.”
I was an ESL student, I had a good GPA, I was involved in the community and a number of different school aspects, and at the end of the third year my instructor was like “you should do honours!” and I think when I signed up I was the first international student graduating with an honours … at least I’d never heard of it happening before.
TN: What stands out from your days at school?
I went from being an ESL student to registering for the BBA, to committing to the honours program. This honours piece – in terms of doing a primary research component for an industry client – really sticks out in my mind. I did a project with Westside UBrew. Here we are in the wine region attracting tourists and a UBrew is competing for clients, wanting to know how to attract a younger demographic. It was a fascinating project, I felt like I was really contributing to the Kelowna business community.
Another course that stands out is Tourism Stewardship, doing a sustainability analysis for the Kelowna airport, and we were only three students and it was hands-on work, going out into the community and being involved in it, this was tremendous.
In every course (except for Intro to Tourism) I had the benefit of meeting key players in the local industry, which was great. And I loved Government Policy! Well, maybe not at the time … I never understood it until I studied for the test, and then it clicked. Now reading the paper, listening to current events, I understand why they are having this discussion.
TN: What courses were your least favourite?
I would lie if I didn’t say statistics! I would say the one that I least enjoyed … all classes were challenging, but you can work through them … I struggled with law. And it’s funny because I may still want to go to law school, but it was in the beginning of my whole degree, I was still learning English. Considering the vocabulary and knowledge I have now I think I would have been able to approach it differently than I did at the time.
TN: What is your day-to-day like now?
I was very selective when I started my job search, and I interviewed for a few positions, some that were way beyond my capabilities and I surprisingly got interviews for positions that were beyond, I mean … the people who won the positions had many more years of experience.
My life was taking me to Vancouver and I knew I didn’t want to go back to hotels and a friend of mine who works at Cactus said “we need an office manager” and the more I looked at it, the more I could see the opportunity there.
I try to think strategically about my career. Every time I didn’t get a job, I would ask for feedback and they’d tell me it’s because I don’t have admin experience. And I do need to prove myself – especially in a new community – it’s something I haven’t done. I’ve worked in hotels, restaurants, wineries … but never this type of ‘office job’ and I’m very grateful for it.
Now I can see it from the back-of-house perspective, I don’t face guests, I don’t have to put in crazy hours, I’m filling those gaps on my resume – and everyone I talk to respects Cactus Club as an organization. With a regular job I have the time to get to know the community more and volunteer, I have time to give back.
I’m volunteering with the Hospitality Foundation and increasing my networks, and getting to know the city. I don’t have money to give back but I have time and some knowledge to give back and would like to be more engaged in the community.
TN: What are your career dreams?
There are different avenues, I have a bit of scatterbrain … I’m passionate about tourism and travel and want to work in the industry, preferably in destination development. I think one of my key strengths is developing relationships and providing knowledge on how everything is connected.
With my running buddy we say if nothing else works out, we can go to law school. I think it might make sense, international law, immigration law – it still has to do with the movement of people and providing them the knowledge that I have. However, if opportunities come up at Cactus, I am definitely not saying no!
Ultimately the dream, what I want … I want to have my own business and I’m saving up to start it. I want to have multiple businesses. Riding my bike by the harbour everyday, seeing the boats and houseboats, I think to myself “a houseboat boutique B and B” would work, not an AirBnB, but a fully functioning part of the visitor economy that contributes back to the industry and community. A boutique B and B that happens to be right – right – on the water.
And I always dreamt of having a sports hotel. They don’t exist here, we have them in Europe. One of my favourite memories from when I was on the national team for nine pin bowling … we would visit these training camps in preparation for the world cup. The one I enjoy is at the top of a hill, called Sportpark Rabenberg, it’s a secluded area. All the guests who come there do sports – you are not there to relax, you’re there to train – it’s sports camp with accommodation together.
One of the great things about that experience is it brings together different athletes from different sports. We would be sitting in the dining hall and you could see into the professional dancers ballroom. Watching them train just as athletes do, the blood, sweat, and tears that go into their training left an impression on me.
So it would be my dream to open one of these here. I want to see people succeed, I want to have people come to my place, cry, sweat, and then see them on the TV years later winning a medal.
Those are the things that get me up in the morning, and keep me up during the day, and this is what I want to work for.
TN: Any advice for tourism and hospitality students?
There are a few things I wish I had known before I started my program. I’d say:
1. Volunteer and be active in the community. Jonathan Rouse (dean of the hospitality program) was one of the people who encouraged me do more, trying to get a tourism club up and running on campus … trying to raise the profile of tourism on campus, we had 16 people at our first meeting and it was hard to break through and get people involved but I’m glad I tried.
2. Work and take on extra activities in your workplace. When I was working for Delta Hotels and I wanted to know more I participated in workplace related programs such as the Green Team or the Bike Ride for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. If you work, be involved in your work and get to know your colleagues.
3. Have a talk with your professors. I eventually realized, “hey my profs are connected and have the knowledge and different way of doing things”. They can give you extra perspective, they know what’s happening – Blair’s advice, Laura’s advice and Michael’s advice, it all contributed.
4. Get engaged in the industry. When I went to a restaurant, I would speak to the owner. Don’t be shy, get to know the tourism businesses around you.
5. Say yes to the extras. Participate in competitions like I did with the LinkBC Case Competition – my public speaking has improved drastically, I met people in industry. I don’t want to play the ESL card but it’s different and you stand in front of a room full of people, I don’t know the vocabulary and trying to wiggle your way around the language in front of a crowd and judges and industry … it’s tough. I competed in RRU and Queen’s competitions too.
6. Just fight for it. The first year at university was not easy, given my language skills weren’t there, my confidence level was low, I was dressing differently … I didn’t want to speak up because I was worried someone would make fun of me. At some point I said to my classmates: “we don’t need to get along, we just have one goal, and that’s to walk across the stage”. I’m glad I stood up for myself.
7. Be a contributor. Seeing brilliant minds coming out of post-secondary – we can innovate, innovation doesn’t always need to look like change or be threatening. Let’s focus on how can we help the industry make more money, collaborate more.
8. Learn the tourism language. Post-secondary helps you be confident with the language, remember those words, those terms your instructors are teaching you, you can go to a conference and understand what’s going on and connect with people working in the industry and make sense.
TN: That’s some great advice! Any parting words for our readers?
My idol is Walt Disney who said “if you can dream it you can do it”, and that’s how I live my life.
Tourism Nerd 