Hi friends.This is Toshna from mauritius campus.It has been very hard to get an internship in a public relation capacity but finally i have got one.I am in the public relations department of the Casuarina Resort and Spa.This is my fist internship in a public relation capacity and i am thrilled with this new experience.It is my 9th day at work 2day.I was a bit lost when i just joined the hotel as it is quite different from what i have learned in my public relations module.In hotels public relations is not just writing media releases or facilitating communication but also building relationships with the guests.It starts right from welcoming them when they come to going to the restaurant at night and asking them if they have any problems and are enjoying their stay.These days i have mainly been building relationship with guests under the supervision of the PR manager Mrs Narvada.It is quite challenging to communicate effectively with the language barrires.Some german clients do not know english at all,luckily i know a bit of german.Do any of you have the problem of language barrier?From today i will start to work on a pr plan for the hotel.I have identified some problems in communication and i will propose solutions to it and also prepare a media kit for the new hotel that will soon open in partnership with casuarina with the consent of the GM of course due to confidentialty purposes.See you friends.Hope you enjoying your internship as well.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
My first post
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
toshna,
Your internship so far sounds a lot like how a lot of young people in my country get their start in our tourism industry. You see I am from Maldives (next to Mauritius right?) and we had a tendency to get young people into the industry by throwing them in the deep end. Whether it was catering, housekeeping or administration, getting them to learn on the job was pretty much the only way for them to learn as many cannot afford to go hotel school. We too have the problem of language barriers. Fortunately the situation is not too bad, even if the staff don't speak a certain language the administration usually do. I think when it comes to PR plans for hotels, the key is treat the guests you already have as your biggest target public. Getting them to come to your hotel is the easy part. Encouraging them to enjoy themselves, create lasting memories and making them want to return to your hotel is the hard part. Tourists are surprisingly loyal. Of course I may be wrong so let us know how your PR plan goes. Enjoy your internship!
Hi Toshna,
This was a very interesting blog to read, I have been to Mauritius twice before and noted the range of people from different cultures who were there as tourists.
PR in a hotel sounds very different as well and seems like something that more graduates should learn about - as there would be a lot more opportunities in hotels at the moment than in other organisations and in consultancies I would imagine, during the current economic climate.
I haven't had issues directly with language barriers, but in my position I wrote a brochure for people visiting Perth- telling them about things to do here as well as things like business etiquette and safety within Perth.
I hope that you enjoy your placement and look forward to reading your blogs.
Jordan Pieterse
13635084
Curtin University Perth
Hey Toshna,
I must say that I lived the same experience for my internship. For the first week I was really stressed by my internship, as English was not my first language, and that I was not really confident about being in this company. The ISC is a department of communication for the international Curtin Student. I was surprised to enjoy and to learn a lot of thing during my experience.
I also discover various other strategies and tactics that were used by the employees of the ISC, that I didn’t think before... I think this internship is really useful for our study and our personal background, so enjoy and make the most of it...
Celine
Post a Comment