News #1

Week 4

Venue: Tourism Room II, Taylor's University

REPORT  

The trip proposal was presented today to Paolo. Our tour manager Madey Shihab headed the presentation and representatives from respective departments presented theirs. Sarah presented the itinerary of the trip, Ishrath as our treasurer presented the financial report and costing of the trip and Joon Neng showed and explained on Risk Management Plan to the class on behalf of the Crisis Team. 

During the presentation, Paolo made some remarks and a lot of important comments. The proposal that was presented today was vague and there were a lot of ambiguities. The itinerary presented was not detailed enough and there were some free slots. Timing was not set up efficiently and activities were still undecided. As for the costing report, Ishrath had trouble coming up with a definite and specific amount as there were not much information of quotations from other teams for her to use.

Risk Management Plan was also lack in details. Paolo mentioned that the plan needs to be refined and detailed. A complete simplified action plan is needed for a good proposal. Joon Neng explained on how they would manage any situations in any case of emergency and further acknowledged that their team would have everything jotted and simplified in a better format.

There were also some discussions made during the presentation. Clash of ideas between some students on the itinerary and some have also suggested new ideas for the activities. Ishrath proposed to swap the details for day 4 and day 5 to not waste any time. Grace was quite reluctant as she was unsure whether they would have time for their dives and they had little information on Sri Lanka's dive centers. 

Food & beverage department duty was also highlighted during the presentation. It is very important for them to consider everyone's preference and to find suitable restaurants. These restaurants should be able to cater a group of students and their price quotation should be made clear. Paolo gave a good example on the efficiency of his previous class F&B for their trip to Cambodia. Food & beverage team was reminded to come up with places to eat (according to students' preferences) and the price for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Paolo mentioned that the class would have to have an activity that is related to the course Integrated Resorts Management as some budget is taken from the subject. To have a team building activity was proposed by Joon Neng to fill in the free time slot and Sarah suggested to visit an eco-tourism site. Paolo has also stressed on students' preferences; it is up for us students and we have to decide on it. So, will there be a new committee to be in charged with the team building activity and the educational visit program?

At the end of the class, Madey ended the presentation by stressing on the workload that the class will be facing. There are a lot of work to do and it is very important to finalize the proposal. Madey and Grace delegated the task and reminded all on what we have to do. The class has to have the final and detailed proposal for Paolo to forward and get it approved by Mr. Frederic.  

And so, let's do this together and get it right! Good communication is the key! ;)

Till our next news! 

Class Trip Secretary

Sept 29th, 2012