According to stats, the total and direct contribution of travel and tourism to the Maldives GDP in 2015 was 52.4% and 96.5% respectively, making tourism the leading industry for the economy. The Ministry of Tourism has been striving to reshape the tourism landscape in the country and boost tourism arrival.
Apart from countless opportunities for tourists, the resort and hospitality industry in the Maldives create lucrative career opportunities for both locals and international job seekers.
If you have the patience to deal with difficult customers and you like to put a smile on a stranger’s face, you must consider choosing a career in the hospitality industry. From catering to hotel management, the opportunities to find your ideal career are truly numerous. However, in order to survive and grow in the hospitality industry, you need to identify your skills and how you can use your skills and education to secure and retain your ideal job.
Hospitality is a rapidly growing industry in the Maldives following the creation of an increasing number of jobs and the economic impact it has on local communities. Whether you prefer to wok in cruises, events, nightlife, or hotels, there are hundreds of jobs for locals and foreigners who want to stay in the sector long term.
Since the hospitality sector is all more about ensuring impeccable service and customer satisfaction, you must have a core set of skills to be a successful hospitality employee. Do you have the right set of skills to excel in the competitive hospitality sector in the Maldives? We have identified the following top 10 skills you must possess to make your way in this industry:
1. Cultural Awareness
The international leisure segment drives tourism in the Maldives. The country has welcomed more than one million tourists in 2019 and the number is likely to increase. Having said that, the hospitality industry in the Maldives has to deal with a large percentage of the customers coming from abroad. Hospitality employees, therefore, must know how to work with people from a broad range of cultural backgrounds. Your success will largely depend on your ability to adapt and be culturally aware.
Since tourists are coming to the Maldives from all parts of the world, you will not always share the same perceptions, values, and belief systems.
Intercultural misunderstandings are not healthy for a business operating in a culturally diverse environment. So, each individual from cleaning staff to facility managers must realize the significance of cultural awareness and how it can help business owners achieve their business goals. The understanding of cultural diversity and pragmatic implementation is, therefore, crucial for the Maldivian resort industry.
As a foreigner employee serving the hospitality industry in the Maldives, you should not only have a basic understanding of the culture of Maldives but also understand the need for being culturally aware. Flexibility, intercultural awareness, and capitalizing on differences are some of the attributes that can help you fast-track your way up the corporate ladder.
Some of the recognized educational institute offering hospitality management programs address the need for cultural awareness to prepare students before they start working in the hospitality industry.
2. Customer Service
Acquiring customer service skills is absolutely vital when it comes to building a prosperous career in the hospitality industry. Whether you’re a chef, sales manager or guest service supervisor, it’s important to be a people person. Here are some tips to improve your customer service skills:
- Clear communication: prevent customer frustration and avoid misunderstandings. For example, if you’re a front-desk officer, don’t avoid eye contact or unnecessarily prolong the check-in process by talking too much.
- Be patient: it’s crucial to handle customers with care and patience. The inability to show patience will alleviate customers’ frustration, but your job is to provide the necessary support and handle angry or frustrated customers.
- Attentiveness: The ability to listen and understand customers’ needs goes a long way in the hospitality industry. So, you should work on your skills to be attentive to and mindful of criticism and feedback.
- Positive language: when someone has good customer service skills, it means they have the ability to make required changes in conversational patterns. Positive language is a vital part of persuasion as customers create a perception of your company based on your language and attitude.
- Time management: while it’s advantageous to spend a little extra time to understand customers, you need to learn how to get things done in a time-efficient manner. There must be a limit to the amount of time you may dedicate to accomplish a piece of work.
- Unflappability: staying cool under pressure is key to success when it comes to working in a demanding environment. People associated with the hospitality industry must learn the art of staying calm and handling situations when things get a little out of control.
Communication has become one of the major concerns in modern workplaces. Effective workplace communication is essential regardless of the industry. The importance of sound communication skills even increases when it comes down to hospitality jobs in the Maldives. How are you going to be a successful manager if you feel uncomfortable communicating with employees?
Strong communication skills will help you with your career regardless of your position or job responsibilities. They’re highly valued in the hospitality and tourism industry. Each day, you’re likely to deal with people from a variety of nationalities, backgrounds, ages, and temperaments. You’re expected to communicate in an understandable and precise manner. Here are some tips for improving communication skills:
- Learn non-verbal communication: to communicate confidently and clearly, adopt proper posture. Avoid making yourself appear smaller than you’re by folding your arms, and don’t forget to maintain eye contact. Physical cues do matter; words aren’t the only way to communicate.
- Engage customers in discussion: Since your audience will be predominantly tourists, it’s important that you make discussions with customers more interactive and engaging. Make your customers call out their thoughts.
- Master the art of timing: If you want to learn the art of timing, observe successful comedians and see how they host long and compelling comedy shows. Just like a comedian, you need to master the art of timing. In other words, you must learn how to feel out customers to determine when to speak or when to reiterate an idea.
- Be a good listener: A good communicator is also a good listener. So, listen more than you talk. To be good at communication, first listen to what others have to say.
4. Multitasking
The skills that make hospitality employees successful in resorts and hotels are pretty much the same that make them successful in other industries. For instance, multitasking skills are valuable no matter your profession. One of the reasons why tourism and hospitality can be so hard to work in is the need for managing hectic situations effectively. The ability to multitask will help you handle several tasks at once.
Multitaskers understand how to manage their time effectively while handling pressure and staying calm in tough situations. For example, as a restaurant manager, you have to oversee the operations and are responsible for the failure or success of the establishment. Interacting with customers, scheduling, ordering food and supplies, managing and training staff, and ensuring high-quality customer service are some of the day-to-day tasks.
If the kitchen has many orders to fill, the manager must know how to motivate and assist the chef so that customer wait times can be reduced. Likewise, if food is ready but servers are busy, the manager is supposed to sort out how to deliver meals on time. A person who is unable to multitask can’t be a good hospitality manager.
5. Language
Needless to mention that being hospitable is essential to impeccable hospitality which demands welcoming, engaging, and customer-focused behavior. The subtle language of hospitality makes tourists feel welcomed and comfortable.
Language skills add value to your resume if you wish to serve the hospitality industry in the Maldives. They will enable you to communicate with a broad range of clients. For instance, if you can speak French in addition to other required languages, you might be able to secure a relationship management role.
If we evaluate the successful employees serving the tourism and hospitality industry in the Maldives, we come to know that most of them have a degree of multi-languages that directly helps employers improve the quality of their services.
The applications of linguistic skills are not limited to the hospitality staff, people associated with transport and retail also need to be skilled in several languages to answer the queries in a way that is easily understandable. Tourists from all around the world expect a range of language skills in luxury resorts. Speaking someone’s else language is a vital component of being hospitable.
6. Teamwork
Regardless of your area of expertise, your role will be to function as a cog in a much large machine. Whether you’re an HR manager or a cleaner, you must understand the vitality of teamwork. During busy periods, it’s critical for everyone working within an establishment to coordinate and perform their duties in a collaborative environment. It might be challenging to adapt quickly and get used to new faces constantly, working in a seamless union will make your and others’ job a lot easier.
It’s critical for employees to be able to work collaboratively with a group of people. Teamwork is a key part of a hospitality business. It means that staff will try to corporate and discharge their duties despite their personal conflicts with other individuals in the team.
Teamwork is one of those skills desired by recruiters in the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, college graduates frequently lack teamwork skills and find it difficult to perform in collaborative environments. Let’s take a look at valuable tips for improving your teamwork skills:
- Celebrate your teams’ achievements: a quick high-five around the table for a job well done can go a long way. As a team player, acknowledging and celebrating your teams’ achievement is as important as identifying areas where they could improve.
- Don’t complain: no one likes complainers in a professional setting even if the complaints do make sense. When you join a hospitality establishment in the Maldives, you’ll find several things to complaint about. Focus on the positive, even if you or your team had a bad day.
- Don’t argue: arguing with your teammates over who should take the credit for a job well done wouldn’t do any good. While it’s important to give your best, individuals in a team should work without competing with each other.
The ability to solve complex problems in a time-efficient way is a highly valued skill in any industry. In hospitality, you have to learn how to think on your feet and resolve issues quickly. For example, you should know how to calm down an angry guest by offering something special. Staff with problem-solving skills save the business owner troubles of potential conflicts. If you’re inclined to get problems fixed, hospitality is the right industry for you.
8. Attention To Detail
The ability to focus on a task will make it a lot easier for you to make your hospitality career. The attention to detail is defined as the ability to achieve accuracy and thoroughness when working on a task. Too many job seekers mention on their resume that they have strong attention to detail attributes. However, not many candidates have the power to stay focused on a particular task.
When you pay attention to details, you help your establishment provide a positive customer experience. For example, remembering how a certain customer prefers their drink and then serving accordingly can leave a great impression on that customer. Some of the important attention to detail skills include:
- Analytical thinking
- Observational skills
- Active listening
- Time management
In the hospitality industry, employers rely heavily on their customer-facing staff to build and maintain the reputation of their brand. As an employee, you’ll be required to remain highly professional during work. Also, you have to work hard in order to grow in a hospitality career. From long shifts to little rewards, you have to maintain a cheerful and friendly facade when dealing with customers. People not willing to roll up their sleeves often get dismissed rather quickly.
10. Networking
In the hospitality business, networking is also a useful skill which is about stimulating repeat business from customers. With strong networking skills, you would be able to have loyal customers who’re interested in returning to your restaurant or hotel. So, never stop networking.
Conclusion
Although it’s not suitable for everyone, the Maldivian tourism industry is surely a rewarding career for the right candidates. If you have these skills, your chances of having a fruitful career in the hospitality industry are fairly bright.
The Maldives benefits from a steady leisure demand for hotel and resort accommodation throughout the year. With the growing number of visitors every year, the hospitality industry needs more multi-skilled professionals. If you want to explore employment opportunities in the Maldivian tourism and hospitality sector, keep visiting Job Maldives!
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