Airplane tickets to Hong Kong – the first travel bubble destination with Singapore – sold out fast despite being in the middle of the pandemic. Hotels are gearing up to open to a new market. Restaurants seem constantly full these days. In fact, the hospitality industry is ideally poised for a huge rebound in demand – a surge that’ll be brought on by an entire year of lockdowns, travel restrictions, and post-Covid fatigue.
While no one can be 100% sure what new normal will look like, one thing’s for certain: anyone with the business skills to tap into this market will be in a good position to thrive.
The dark horse of booming industries
It may feel like the end of the world with all the scary news these days, but as the saying goes, there’s always light at the end of a tunnel. When planning a career, look at the big picture – your long-term vision. If you’re looking for a career in hospitality, research has shown that the industry takes an average of just 1.5 years to bounce back fully from recessions like the Global Financial Crisis (2008) or SARS (2003).
Unlike other booming industries like tech, business or engineering, hospitality is consumed by all sectors of the market, from the ultra rich to the average Joe who will always need a bit of R&R, whether it’s a fancy meal, weekend staycation, an overseas holiday, or any other “people first” experiences. At the end of the day, hospitality is the business of treating ourselves; an antidote to the stress that’s ever-present in today’s world.
This is why demand will never go away and why the business of hospitality is always a safe bet when it comes to a long-term career – and an education in hospitality management can give you a solid head start.
A business degree poised to profit from hospitality
While “hospitality management” often conjures up images of students learning how to cater events or manning hotel receptions, a qualification from Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) is not just a hospitality degree that includes a business course, it’s a business degree with hospitality at its core.
In today’s global hospitality industry, technical know-how needs to be complemented by a broader set of strategic business skills. A big part of EHL’s courses focus on teaching the skills and domain knowledge for business management, which is in addition to hospitality operational modules. Students will be taking classes like Macroeconomics and Revenue Management in tandem with curriculum like Oenology (the study of wine) and Fine Dining Cuisine modules.
EHL graduates will be equipped with business management skills and hospitality know-how, which will help them open doors to careers not just in the hospitality sector. A business-oriented hospitality degree will fast-track someone’s career progression in any multinational organisation, while the specific skills learned are also strategic for entrepreneurship. In fact, EHL‘s Business Incubator supports promising startups that are relevant to the hospitality industry.
EHL’s unique position in the business of hospitality
With over 125 years of experience, EHL is recognised as a Swiss University of Applied Science, and is ranked as the best Hospitality University in the world, according to the QS Top Universities ranking in 2020. EHL’s courses are a perfect blend of intelligence and emotions, hard skills and soft skills, theory and practice. In fact, about 200 companies actively recruit on campus twice a year.
EHL offers 2 specialised pathways to the 4-year Bsc in International Hospitality Management: academic and professional. Both cover everything from operations to key management tools, business strategy, and planning – basically teaching you how to run a hospitality business from the ground up, but in very different styles.
The popular academic pathway is split between its campuses in Switzerland and Singapore. Students based in the Singapore Campus will take their first semester in Lausanne before finishing their remaining 3 years in Singapore, bouncing worldwide on internships for two semesters in between. Students based in the Lausanne Campus will take all 4 years in Lausanne with opportunities to do an exchange in Passugg or Singapore, making this pathway ideal for those who thrive in a dynamic university environment with group assignments and internships.
The professional pathway, on the other hand, suits those seeking a deeper physical immersion and are passionate about the culinary arts, communication, and hotel management. Students will learn at the hotel-resort setting at Passugg before finishing their final semester at the Lausanne campus.
How to apply
Take advantage of today’s “new normal” and get a jump on the competition. Understand how to analyse your position in the marketplace by tapping into a business education that specialises in hospitality. Check out EHL’s website and take the first step in planning for your future in a post-Covid world.
