International High School Programs

  Why is Travel and Tourism on the Web?
  The Role of the Instructor
  The Topics Covered and Skills to be Learned in Each Unit

The TTBIZ site

Why was the Travel & Tourism Program developed?

Tourism has become so important around the world that JA Worldwide® has had many requests for materials that would help students learn about this critical industry, while at the same time learning about free enterprise. The Travel & Tourism Program was developed in response to these many requests.

The Travel & Tourism Industry Is the World's Fastest Growing Industry

Travel and tourism is not only the world's fastest-growing industry, but also an important one economically. Recent studies by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) have shown that tourism revenues make up nearly ten percent of GNP in a number of countries.

The travel & tourism industry employs people in a great variety of jobs from airline workers; to hotel and restaurant employees; to retail salespeople; to manufacturers of crafts and other products which tourists like to buy. It is, therefore, an industry, which involves many industries that used to be considered as separate one from another. Even the name, travel & tourism industry, is relatively new.

Like other service industries, customer service is extremely important to success in the travel & tourism industry. Yet, at times, its customers -- tourists -- are not pleasant consumers and providing customer service can be a thankless task. By definition, tourists are people who have left their homes to visit another place and then returned home. Many make the effort to understand the local culture in the places they visit. Others do not. At times, there are tensions between tourists and local residents. Yet, when people who work in the industry or who live in a tourist area begin to understand tourism's importance in their local and global economy, they can better relate to the tourists who visit their locality. In turn, as tourists become well educated about the industry, they become better customers. Travel & tourism education is an important component in this process.

Increasingly, governments in many countries are creating explicit tourism development strategies and learning how to compete effectively in this global market. Because entrepreneurs can flourish in the travel & tourism industry, it makes sense to have a JAI program that provides an opportunity for students to learn about business within the context of travel & tourism.

What is TTBiz?

TTBiz is the Travel & Tourism Business Program, developed for JA Worldwide® (JAI) under a grant from the American Express Foundation.  TTBiz is designed to let students learn about the travel & tourism industry and about starting and running a service business.

Students first learn about the global Travel & Tourism industry and its economic impact, then they learn how to do market research in their own area, and finally, having determined where there is a market opportunity, they setup and run an actual service business.  Their customers can be travel & tourism companies or tourists.

How This Program Helps Students Gain a Global Perspective

In the classroom, teaching about travel & tourism is a means for understanding not only one's own heritage, but also the culture and customs of others. Cross-cultural learning is reinforced by the course design, which requires students to interact with and learn from tourists in their own country and from students participating in the program in another country.

Using interviewing and survey techniques, students learn how to communicate face-to-face and via the Internet with people from other cultures. They learn about cultural differences and develop active listening skills.

Not only is the course a vehicle for learning about how to use the Internet (the World Wide Web) to communicate with others, but it is also a means of obtaining useful information. Students, who once relied on the school or local library, now have access to such vast amounts of additional data that a guided tour of Internet resources is essential. For classrooms that do not have access to the Internet, consultants can obtain printed copies of the Internet resources by contacting JA Worldwide®.

How This Program Prepares Students for Further Study & The World of Work

This program involves teamwork, field research, computer skills, listening and presentation skills, among others - all of which are invaluable for students going on to further study or directly into the workforce.

Learning to understand, work with, and enjoy a diversity of people are attributes that can help students succeed in our increasingly global world.

From a business perspective the program is based on a fundamental business principle --know your market. Thus, it starts by requiring the students to understand their own communities and the existing tourism market. It might be argued that students could start a simple tourism-related business without understanding either their communities or the industry and certainly many businesses are begun that way. However, this program is intended to provide a solid foundation for future business activities. The process of learning how to conduct and understand market research will, we believe, be a valuable asset for the students.

Not to be overlooked is the fact that the program involves volunteers from the travel & tourism Industry, who share their expertise. By bringing examples from their work, volunteers will help students learn the nuances of having a real job in a real company.

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Why is Travel & Tourism on the Web?

Travel & Tourism is both a global business and a local business program that conducts much of its activity using telecommunications, computers and global reservation systems. Mastering the use of information technology is an important skill for the 21st century. This program is designed to help students become very comfortable with using the Web.

The Travel & Tourism program content has been specifically designed to be available over the Web because it can be distributed readily and efficiently to many classrooms around the world. All the information, including instructor notes and student materials, is included on the Web site and can be reproduced in print form by participating schools.

What is contained in the www.ttbiz.org Web Site?

The Web site has several key components. Materials for the instructor are separate from materials for students. Wherever feasible, the student section points students to other sites on the Web. Student material is designed to be as interactive as possible.

• First, there is a section that has detailed lesson plans and information for every unit.

• Second, there are student lessons containing both information and activities about each topic. The students can "click" on symbols, which will take them to other sites with useful information.

The Web site is linked to other sites which have information the students will need. Two key resources are:

• The web site of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)

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The Role of the Instructor

It is up to an individual instructor to determine how in-depth she/he wants to make this program. However, since it requires students to exchange e-mails with content, up to and including business plans, with counterparts in another country, the instructors need to agree among themselves on the level and pace to be adopted between the partner programs.

The instructor will lead the class discussions, and in some cases will supervise the students as they do field research. Additionally, other volunteers can be used to help students in the field, as they interview business owners, for example.

What Is the Content of This Program and How Is It Organized?

Travel & Tourism consists of classroom and field activities that teach students how to start an actual tourism-related small business. The program has been divided into ten units, each of which covers a specific topic and is designed to be taught sequentially.

Each unit requires at least two class sessions and students are required to go out into their communities to do field research. There are about 26 hours of class activity and discussion plus 12 hours of on-line computer work. The class discussions involve computer work preparation and/or analysis of the results of computer work. There are also from 12 -17 hours of fieldwork where students, working in teams, will survey their communities. Time will also be needed for the students to run the actual business they decide to implement.

In some units, students will discuss a concept, test it out in the field then come back together to discuss what they have learned. The total hours (50 -55 minimum) needed to cover these units do NOT include the time required to operate the student business. If the instructor and the classroom teacher concur, the program can be scheduled over more than twenty calendar weeks.

If the instructor faces time constraints, certain activities can be skipped or condensed. For example, Unit 4, in which the students set up a practice travel business could be dropped, though it is an activity which students enjoy and which gives excellent practice prior to running an actual business. Unit 10 asks the students to evaluate their businesses - this final activity can be scheduled several weeks or even a few months after the students have been operating their business.

Each unit can take greater or lesser amounts of classroom time depending on the instructor's schedule and preferences --minimum times are suggested. More time is needed for some units, and this is noted. Sometimes, working with computers and connecting to the Internet can involve delays, so instructors should always review their section of the unit well in advance of class. If the instructor and classroom teacher are interested, there are additional activities included for enrichment or for more advanced practice.

Students should also be encouraged to visit the web site at other times to review materials or simply browse travel & tourism-related sites. Some students have home computers, and if they choose to go into the site and review units or prepare units in advance, this will not pose a problem.

The two-week period for each unit is needed because, in most units, the students are expected to do field work or research in their own communities, working together in groups. This schedule also provides enough time to exchange information with student participants in other countries. If more time is needed for international exchanges of information, the instructors will need to coordinate schedules that suit them. 

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The Topics Covered And Skills To Be Learned In Each Unit Are Summarized Below:

Unit One: Introduction to the Travel & Tourism Program and Global Tourism	Unit Six: Organizing Your Business
Unit Two: Local Tourism	Unit Seven: Putting Together a Business Plan
Unit Three: Using Data to Make Business Decisions	Unit Eight: Finding the Money
Unit Four: Developing A Practice Travel & Tourism Business	Unit Nine: Reaching Customers
Unit Five: Choosing a Business	Unit Ten: Managing Your Business

Unit One: Introduction to the Travel & Tourism Program and Global Tourism. The content of this unit is global tourism and learning to use the Web. At the end of this unit students will be able to define the various kinds of tourism, better understand that tourism is a global business providing jobs and significant contribution to many countries' GNP, and use the Web site to access course information and selected sites for information.

• Requires classroom work with computers and fieldwork in the community.

• Time needed: 2 hours of class discussion; 2 hours of computer work; 2 hours of fieldwork.

Unit Two: Local Tourism. This unit focuses on identifying the local tourist industry. Students will survey businesses, tourists, their cultural heritage, and ecological sites. They will also survey their peers in participating countries. At the end of this unit, students should understand why a business conducts market surveys, be able to construct a simple market survey, be able to conduct effective face-to-face interviews, and understand and articulate what constitutes a good sample for a survey.

• Requires classroom work with computers, communication with partner countries, and local fieldwork.

• Time needed: 2 hours of class discussion; 1 hour of computer work; 4-6 hours of fieldwork.
   

Unit Three: Using Data to Make Business Decisions. Students will analyze survey data, determine local market needs, and compare their local tourism market with that of a partner country. At the end of this unit students should be able to tabulate a questionnaire, present data in various graphic formats, and use data to describe their local tourist environment.

• Requires classroom work with computers and communication with partner countries.

• Time needed: 2 hour of class discussions; 2 hours of computer work.

Unit Four: Developing A Practice Travel & Tourism Business. To practice putting together a business, students will start and run a tour business using fellow students as clients. At the end of this unit, students will be able to apply the information they have collected in their earlier surveys to a business situation, set up a business, make service decisions based upon their survey data, and begin to relate performance criteria to their business operations -judging whether what they or someone else does is effective.

• Requires classroom work with computers, communication with partner countries and fieldwork.

• Time needed: 2 hour of class discussions; 1 hour of computer work; 4 hours of fieldwork.

Unit Five: Choosing a Business. Students will analyze their local market needs, assess the skills they have developed and select a business they wish to start. At the end of this unit, students should be able to use brainstorming techniques to generate ideas to construct an evaluation system for decision making.

• Requires classroom work with computers and communication with partner countries.

• Time needed: 3 hours of class discussion; 1 hour of computer work.

Unit Six: Organizing Your Business. This unit covers the basic business functions (marketing, finance, manufacturing/operations, quality control/customer service, promotion, sales, and people resources). At the end of this unit students will understand ways businesses make themselves special and will be able to determine how to do that for their business, determine the key success factors for a business, understand the role of each business function and how it relates to every other role, be able to write a job description for important business roles and a simple resume to highlight their qualifications and experience.

• Requires classroom work with computers and communication with partner countries.

• Time needed: 4 hours of class discussion; 1 hour of computer work; 1 hour of work at home.

Unit Seven: Putting Together a Business Plan. This unit is step-by-step guide to putting together a business plan. At the end of this unit students will be able to put together a business plan and use responsibility charting to manage complex tasks.

• Requires classroom work with computers and communication with partner countries.

• Time needed: 4-6 hours of class discussion; 1 hour of computer work.

Unit Eight: Finding the Money. This unit covers financing the students' own business. At the end of this unit students should be able to explain the differences between debt and equity financing, understand how to put together a simple loan proposal and understand how equity ownership works.
 

• Requires classroom work with computers, communication with partner countries, and fieldwork.

• Time needed: 2 hours of class discussion; 1 hour of computer work; 0 to 2 or more hours of fieldwork, depending upon how the students decide to finance the business.

Unit Nine: Reaching Customers. This unit covers developing marketing materials and marketing the student business. By the end of this unit, students will understand the concept of brand identity, design a logo, which reflects brand identity, design and execute marketing brochures, and develop an evaluation system for customer service.

• Requires classroom work with computers and communication with partner countries.

• Time needed: 3 hours of class discussion; 1 hour of computer work.

Unit Ten: Managing Your Business. This unit covers on-going management of the student business, comparing actual progress with performance measures. At the end of this unit, students will be able to discuss why performance measures are important for a business, construct performance measures that are appropriate for different business activities and kinds of business, and understand and be able to demonstrate how changes in performance measures affect business profits.

• Requires communication with partner countries and fieldwork.

• Time needed: 2 hours of class discussion at the start of the unit; 1 hour of computer work; 1-2 hours of fieldwork and on-going work at the business the students have selected.

Scheduling This Program

The concepts underpinning this program are complex and, depending on the age of the students, can be taught in more or less detail. In general, plan to allow at least two class sessions per unit to allow time for students to conduct research or do computer work between class discussions. Also, computer time and fieldwork have to be scheduled to fit students' other classroom work.

For younger students, this program will serve as a general introduction to both travel & tourism and to business. For older students, this program can provide an in-depth look at both the travel & tourism industry and business operations. Some sections of the program are labeled "For Advanced Students" and can be used at the Instructor's discretion.

Need Help or Have Suggestions?

Our goal is to make this program easy to use for both instructors and students, to have a program that develops skills and provides a stimulating and enjoyable learning experience. We welcome your suggestions and feedback at every stage as you go through this program.

If you have questions, you can contact your local Junior Achievement/Young Enterprise Office or

Nancy Needham, nn@icgs.com or (215) 546-1541, Global Travel and Tourism Partnership: http://www.gttp.org

 

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To learn more about receiving this program in your area, contact your local JA office.