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We were having lunch during the monthly SKAL Club Luncheon, when Bernard (Metzger) asked me whether I could write the Last Word in the first issue of the re-launched "What's on" tourist guide. I was somewhat taken aback and could not, momentarily, think of a "decent" topic to write about. But Bernard pestered me, flattering me about my "successful" involvement in the training of personnel for the hotel and tourism industry for the last 23 years.

As I reflected upon the last 23 years it gradually dawned upon me that many changes had indeed taken place in our industry. The industry and its professionals, like many other aspects of our society, have, to use a geographical term, undergone tremendous metamorphosis. Closely associated with the transformation of the industry is the change in the nature of the hotel guest. Of course, today's student is also completely different from the one we admitted two decades ago.

To comprehend the changes in our industry, one only needs to look at the World Tourism Organization's (WTO) projections. Statistics available from the WTO indicate that tourism is set to grow from 612 million international arrivals in 1997 to more than one billion by the year 2020. These are only numbers. We haven't even talked about changes in other aspects of tourist demographics. The tops of the highest mountains, the depths of the oceans and the ends of the earth are predicted to be the trendiest destinations for holiday makers, in the next millennium.

As I try to digest these facts and figures, my mind rolls back to when Kenya Utalii College opened its doors to its first student. Several nuances made it difficult to attract students to pursue a career in the industry. The intrigues were varied and primarily associated with traditional prejudices.

How could a man walk into the kitchen to cook? How could a decent lady serve in a bar or restaurant? And a total man serving ladies adorned in scanty bikinis?

In addition, few if any, had been to a hotel, let alone enjoy its services. With increased levels of education and exposure to the industry and the media, these prejudices are now hardly noticed. Today, careers in the industry are well remunerated and highly regarded.

Today's students are not only more informed - thanks

to greater media exposure - but many have even enjoyed the services of five star hotels. Today's student is however, also required to cope with a much more dynamic environment.

Whereas before, the guest only needed a comfortable room and well-prepared food, today's guest is more concerned about the environment and his cholesterol levels. The businessman demands a hotel with e-mail facilities and a business centre that features state of the art technology. Hence, to-day's graduate has to keep abreast with the ever-changing technology ... sending faxes as opposed to telexes, working with the computer, and surfing the Internet. Having served an internationally recognized training institution - Kenya Utalii College, and having headed it for the last 12 years, I am proud that our graduates have been able to cope so well with the dynamics of our industry.

To illustrate the capacity of our graduates to adapt to the dynamics of the tourism market, let me quote from a letter by Mr Gothard Frick, Managing Director of Touristconsult of Basel, Switzerland , which he wrote to me after attending the 35th EUHOFA (International Association of Hotel School Directors) Congress, hosted by Kenya Utalii College, in 1996.

"........ Kenya Utalii College has offered to all of us 10 days of perfection in every respect: organization, standard of service friendliness. Today it is not often possible to experience such a shining example of top class hospitality. I overheard a Swiss Hotel School director who said to a colleague: "If only we were able to receive guests in Switzerland as Kenya Utalii College has received us!" The wife of a prominent French said to me at the gala dinner: "I have rarely experienced such perfection, to the honest, I have never seen it before!" And a senior man from the USA said to me about the same dinner: "It was out of the book. We cannot do this anymore in our country." All delegates were amazed. For those the first time in Africa, it was a real eye-opener ......."

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