My week as a Tourism Trailblazer

By: Noor Almatrood, Marketing Specialist, at Red Sea Global (RSG)

A one week journey full of experiences and lessons. 

Since joining the Elite Graduate Program at Red Sea Global (RSG), I have been standing in front of a line of opportunities that open up to me and my colleagues, to be part of the Kingdoms’ Vision 2030 and achieve the goals of the world’s most visionary developer.

As part of the Tourism Trailblazers program, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia and organized by King Abdul-Aziz University, I had the opportunity to take part in a five-day course on ‘Experience in Hospitality’ along with a group of my esteemed colleagues at one of the world’s leading hospitality management schools, Les Roches in Switzerland. 

Getting to Les Roches

The journey started last month when we departed King Khalid International Airport headed for Zurich. After a seven hour flight, members from Les Roches were waiting for us at the airport, and swiftly had us on a four hour bus journey to Crans-Montana.

Upon arrival to Les Roches, together with the 100 other Saudi students, we received keys to our dorm rooms. Tired from travelling, we were ready for bed yet excited about what the next day had in store. 

Back to school

Our week of classes began first with International Culinary. Here we learned the fundamentals of catering in a hospitality setting, from operational, psychological and environmental to legal and economical perspectives. To gain practical knowledge, we had the chance to look at the university’s own kitchen, which serves students every day, and look at how they manage high quality catering to a large group.

This was followed by lessons in Sales and Negotiation, which was one of my personal favorite classes. I enjoyed understanding different types of selling, such as upskilling and cross selling. We also needed to perform a sales pitch in front of the class and afterwards we all voted for the most influential salespeople. 

Introduction to Hospitality focused on global hospitality topics including tourism trends such as sustainability. We also discussed how Saudi Arabia is building its own tourism industry and considered a global leader, setting new standards for other destinations to follow. Other classes we enjoyed included Customer Experience, Quality Operations Management, and Rooms Division.  

The program’s learning material is tailored to match our country’s Vision 2030 and prepare its future tourism ambassadors with the highest level of hospitality knowledge.

Teachers had different educational backgrounds and came from diverse nationalities. What they all have in common is passion for hospitality and sharing the knowledge they had gained over long careers. It was also pleasing to see that they were eager to learn more about Vision 2030 and showed great interest in visiting our destinations.

Representing RSG on the road

It was an honor representing RSG in this trip with two other colleagues, and to explain the role we are playing in the leading the way towards responsible and regenerative tourism. 

We are grateful to have a supportive ministry that offered this insightful experience, and to be able to come back with new knowledge that adds perspective and skills, helping us to excel in our careers and help RSG achieve its ambitious aims.