HOSPITOUR 2015 ?ACROSS: ASEAN Culture and Economy in Tourism and Hospitality?

Suasana Seminar HOSPITOUR 2015

AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) will soon be enacted in the late 2015‘s. The shift in the international economic system towards a free market has caused a great impact for the dynamic trade development. As a result, countries are required to be able to integrate the national economy to the free trade system, AFTA 2015. The free trade system will facilitate the neighboring countries to come to Indonesia without constraint.

Facing AFTA in 2015, the tourism industry labors have to raise the standards and competences. There are 32 professions in the sector including travel, hotel and restaurant businesses. Starting in late 2015, they are required to compete with labors from other ASEAN countries.

As the successor to Indonesia tourism, STPPH (Institute of Tourism Pelita Harapan) students held The 7^th Hospitour with the theme “ACROSS: ASEAN Culture and Economy in Tourism and Hospitality”. Hospitour is the biggest annual event organized by STPPH. The event was started with the National Seminar on building D UPH room 501, with Dr. Noviendi Makalam, Director of International Relations, Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia, Royanto Handaya, CEO of Panorama Tours and Made Suwenten, Director of Human Resources of The Dharmawangsa Jakarta. The theme was “Indonesia is ready to conquer the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community)”. In line with the theme, this seminar aimed to explain about AFTA and AEC from both government and private perspective, so that the participants couldgain knowledge and better prepared in facing AFTA 2015.

Indonesia should improve the ability of hospitality industry labors through certified training and competency standards. So far, according to the head of the Bureau of International Cooperation, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf), Noviendi Makalam, 125.000 Indonesian human resources already have certification of competence. Such a remarkable achievement considering the difficulty and the cost is quite expensive to get the certification.

Hospitour 2015 was quite different from last year. The event was held from 26 March to 1 April 2015 with extra sub-events such as Exhibition, consisting of Mixing Drinks, Cake Decorations and Banana Flambe cooking demo. The exhibition visitors could practice cooking on the spot and taste the cakes or beverages which they have made.

Hospitour is still ongoing with the series of events such as Mixing Drinks / Bartending, Table Set–up, House Keeping, Kitchen & Pastry and Tour Guiding. Participants who attended this event came from 20 Universities in Indonesia which were Bunda Mulia University, Tourism Academy of Majapahit, Ciputra Artpreneur, Petra Surabaya, Bandung STPP, STPP Bali, Bandung NHI Tourism Academy, Academy Parisiwata Medan, Bina Nusantara and many more.

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