In order to provide diversified and advanced training opportunities for industry professionals and enhance management capabilities of the local service industry, Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and École hôtelière de Lausanne co-orgainsed an Executive Development Programme on Food & Beverage: Successful Concepts & Durable Development on 10 and 11 April. The programme attracted 17 professionals of hotels and mega resorts.
One could consider the food and beverage business to be one of the toughest trades in hospitality industry. Business owners in the industry need to juggle tight margins, heavy staff cost and rather large investment costs together with the ever-changing tastes of the customer.
Through the programme, participants learned how to develop successful F&B concepts and appropriate planning techniques; also to anticipate operational complicationsand understand the importance of technical planning and back-of-house optimisation.
IFT had the honour of inviting Mr. Olivier Verschelde, from Lausanne Hospitality Consulting, an Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne subsidiary, as the facilitator of this programme. Mr. Verschelde graduated from the Ecole Hotelière Lausanne in 2003 and has been building up his knowledge of operations in hospitality industry ever since. He has been involved in managing a new boutique hotel and a spa project near Paris as well as taking the lead in the setup of several food and beverage outlets from conceptualisation to startup prior to joining Lausanne Hospitality Consulting.
As the tourism and hospitality industry is growing swiftly in Macao, the demand for high-quality professionals is increasing and thus hotel management needs to upgrade themselves to cope with the changing market trends. IFT always strives to enhance its teaching and research so as to contribute to the tourism industry and the society. By organising seminars, workshops and trainings, IFT constantly shares with the industry the most updated information and research findings about the future development of Macao’s tourism industry and ways to enhance it.