5 - 7 JULY 1999
BANDUNG, INDONESIA
Entrepreneurship and Education in Tourism
On 5-7 July 1999, the ATLAS Asia inaugural conference took place in Bandung, Indonesia. ATLAS Asia is a section of the European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS). It was initiated to provide a forum for the increasing number of Asian institutions and professional bodies engaged in tourism and leisure education and research.
By HEIDI DAHLES
ATLAS Asia aims to develop transnational initiatives in tourism and leisure education, particularly within Asia and between educational institutions in Asia and Europe. At present ATLAS Asia membership is largely concentrated in Indonesia. In accordance with an obvious demand from Indonesian institutes of higher education and supported by a special funding programme of the Dutch Ministryof Education and Culture, promotional activities were largely focused on the archipelago. Since its inception, ATLAS Asia has booked considerable progress in recruiting members in other parts of Asia. The association currently has about 60 members in 15 different Asian countries.The ATLAS Asia inaugural conference was prepared as a joint effort between Tilburg University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, ATLAS, the International Institute for Asian Studies, and the Center for Research in Tourism at the Institut Teknologi Bandung. In order to address a theme that is central to the concern of ATLAS Asia and its members, emphasis was laid on the relationship between the private tourism sector and issues of education and training for tourism. The purpose of the conference was to map the field of tourism education, both academic and vocational, to compare different educational practices and experiences in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, to explore the need for education and training among large and small private tourism enterprises, and to discuss tourism employment and industry growth. The conference was attended by 130 participants from Europe, the United States, Canada, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Keynote presentations were provided by Drs Acep Hidayat (Resources and Technology Development Agency, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Indonesia), Dr Geoffrey Wall (Waterloo University, Canada), Prof. Ida I Dewa Gede Raka (ITB), Drs H. Kodyat (Institute for Indonesian Tourism Studies (Jakarta), Prof. Kaye Chon (University of Houston, U.S.A.), Prof. F.M. Hartanto (ITB), Prof. M. Callari Galli (University of Bologna, Italy) and Dr John Swarbrooke, Sheffield Hallam University, Great Britain). A forum discussion, chaired by ATLAS Asia co-ordinator Heidi Dahles, addressed a number of interrelated issues. The first revolved around the nature-nurture debate as applied to entrepreneurship: can entrepreneurial skills be acquired through education and training or does a person have to be born an entrepreneur to be successful in business? As most of the forum members had a background in tourism education, a consensus was reached that education and training considerably enhance entrepreneurial skills. The second issue revolved around the question as to whether tourism studies is a science requiring academic education or a profession requiring vocational training. The debate resulted in a compromise: while tourism employment in the industry requires a well-trained labour force, trainers, and policy-makers need the feedback required by scholars with an academic background.
About 25 papers were presented addressing topics like training in ecotourism, guiding and interpretation, local participation in tourism, innovative approaches in tourism development, small-scale tourism enterprises, curriculum development, and cultural tourism in new Asian destinations. The organizers are preparing two publications resulting from the conference: the proceedings will be published by the Center for Research on Tourism of ITB, while ATLAS Asia is compiling a volume of selected papers.
Immediately following the conference, ATLAS Asia and the ITB launched a very exciting venture: the first ATLAS Asia-sponsored summer course on 'Challenges of Tourism Management' held at the Center for Research on Tourism of the ITB. The course attracted 26 participants from Indonesia, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Most of the participants had a background in provincial administration (ten different Indonesian provinces sent officials entrusted with tourism policy issues to Bandung) or in academic and vocational tourism training. There were also a few participants from private companies, in particular the hotel sector and travel agencies. The lecturers from the ITB, Sheffield Hallam University, University of North London, Tilburg University, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam were recruited because of their expertise in tourism management and marketing and their long-standing interest in tourism education in Southeast Asia. Both the lecturers and the participants enjoyed the well-organized course because of the international atmosphere and the comparative approach. A follow-up of this course is planned to take place in Bali in June 2000 and in Hainan (China) in October 2000. *
Dr Heidi Dahles is Assistant Professor at
Department of Culture, Organisation, and Management, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands, E-mail: h.dahles@scw.vu.nl