JITOA roadshow for the Tourism and Hospitality Career Forum gets underway

The road show involves a series of meetings in the different Jordanian universities and colleges and vocational training centers to explain the importance of the careers forum for graduates and those who are completing their training.

Bashiti will give presentations, workshops and lectures to students in their teachers in across-the-board academic specializations that include business administration, economics, politics and sociology to even archaeology and anthropology.

"We want to tell students you don't need to be majoring in tourism or catering to attend the careers forum, but that the hospitality industry is very open about whom it employs," says Bashiti.

In fact his "road show" has already started as this week Bashiti gave his first power-point presentation in Al Hashimyah University during its annual tourism week under the emblem of "Tourism and Tradition and its role in the National Economy."

This is exactly what Bashiti wants to put forward. "Tourism has a major role in the national economy contributing between 10 percent and 12 percent to the country's GNP and we want to tell school leavers and university graduates that they should actively think of pursuing a career in tourism and hospitality as it is the growth industry in Jordan," adds Bashiti.

The tourism job market is flourishing. "The sector can take much more than the present local supply because of its continuous expansion whether in the hotels and/or tourism infrastructure, locals are simply not coming forward," he points out.

Bashiti hopes to change this through his road show which he says it is explaining that the tourism sector is a valuable national resource and its major employment benefits should go to locals."

He will also be visiting hotels, tour operator offices, transport companies, and even those with large corporations especially in the public sector to explain his message that tourism is a viable, dynamic sector that should be supported through greater local employment.