New kids on the block

They'll be the new kids on the block. The first graduates of the new BSc in tourism marketing will march out of DIT Cathal Brugha Street next year, ready to run tourism enterprises of all types. They are expected to bring a new understanding to the industry.

Kirsten Somers (19), from Churchtown, Dublin, always wanted to work in tourism. Her sister, working with Aer Lingus, was based in Switzerland, "so I got to see the lifestyle."

Living in Dublin, Somers can see how tourism is expanding. "Really in order to sustain tourism we need to spread it out to other parts," she says. Her most useful Leaving Cert subjects are German and French. "It's such an advantage to have a language," she says. "I didn't do business, but they start from the basics here in Cathal Brugha Street . . . I hope to go to Germany this summer to work in the industry."

There are 600 students in DIT's school of hospitality, management and tourism. This includes about 100 doing the new degree programme. According to the school's assistant head, Dr Joseph Ruddy, "a number of years ago the college identified the tremendous development of the tourism industry in Ireland." The course started in 1996 and the first first-years came on board.

"Today, a core element of the industry's development is marketing," he says. "Tourism currently employs 125,000 people. The number of tourists visiting Ireland reached five million last year and that's expected to double by the early years of the next millennium."

Course tutor is Alex Gibson. "Our view would be that at graduate level, the most challenging jobs would be in the marketing area," he says.

He lists the skills that anyone considering the course should have: "Communication skills are particularly important. Drive and initiative are becoming more important. And creativity and innovation are skills that we try to develop in the students." Students must have either Irish, French, German or Spanish at honours level to qualify for the course.

The most challenging aspect of the course, says Gibson, is probably "having to work in teams. It's quite different from the Leaving Cert."

Michelle Anderson, a second-year student from Cavan town, wanted to do something in marketing. The course was right up her street - "my dad was involved in advertising," she explains.

Last summer Anderson worked with the newly-appointed tourism marketing executive in Co Cavan gaining more experience in this area. "I'd like to work abroad for a while, but I'd like to come back and work doing something in the cross-border area," she says.

Another second year student, Emma Oriyo, from Dares-Salaam in Tanzania, was also influenced in her career choice by the fact that her father worked with the Tanzanian tourism board. "I'm much more interested in rural and heritage tourism," she says. Last summer she got a job which taught her more about the business.

There's quite a cosmopolitan feel to second year. As well as Oriyo, there is another Tanzanian student, two Finnish students, a Spanish student and a Colombian student.

Noel O'Connor, head of the school, says that all of the students will be placed in industry for one term in their final year and they will be expected to undertake a significant research project. The degree programme equips them to manage tourism enterprises and gives them a detailed understanding of the marketing function, he says.

Subjects include tourism, marketing, communications, environmental and landscape heritage, European tourism policy, enterprise development, international tourism marketing, information technology, strategic tourism policy, environmental control and languages.

Cut-off points last year for this course were 395. The course code is FT402.