This blog post examines how festival planning, service industry experience, language proficiency, and collaborative projects connect to major suitability and career goals when preparing an academic plan for an Event Management major in Tourism.
Writing about academic experiences and reflections
“Acquire world-class service skills and language proficiency”
I grew up frequently exposed to the tourism industry from a young age. My parents worked in tourism and trade for many years, and watching them sparked my interest in the field. With their support and my own choice, I enrolled in a tourism high school. Studying in the Tourism Business Department equipped me with service knowledge and language skills. Although our school offered Tourism Chinese and Tourism Japanese tracks, I chose Business because I wanted to learn comprehensive management and planning without focusing on a specific language or country.
After entering the Tourism Business Department, I mainly learned about hotel operations and improved my English skills through Tourism English. I also gained hands-on experience planning and running events through convention practice. Our school partnered with an event planning company, allowing us to gain practical experience there. Through this course, I participated in planning meetings for hotel banquets and had the opportunity to work as a direct event assistant. While I understood the importance of service in tourism events through lectures, experiencing it firsthand made me realize more directly how it directly impacts customer satisfaction surveys.
English proficiency was especially crucial when participating in service operations. In hotels or cruise tourism, where the proportion of foreign guests is high and English is typically used with service personnel, basic tourism and business English skills were essential. To prepare, we learned English conversation for predictable situations during regular classes. However, beyond this basic conversation, practical English skills to handle various unexpected situations were also necessary. Therefore, I created my own ‘conversation guidebook’ and reviewed it frequently to build my ability to respond to situations. As a result, my English skills improved significantly, my sentence expression became much stronger, and I received recognition as a student capable of providing internationally-level service.
Major School Activities and Reflections
“Demonstrating planning skills as part of the festival preparation committee.”
As a tourism high school, our school held two festivals annually. The first-semester festival served to foster camaraderie among students welcoming the new academic year, while the second-semester festival carried greater significance as a year-end celebration. The second-half festival was particularly valued as a platform to showcase works based on the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the year. Each department set up booths focusing on their specialties, hosting exhibitions or programs that were later evaluated for awards. Therefore, I worked hard alongside my Tourism Business Department friends to win first place in the festival.
We planned our program by holding weekly meetings starting a month before the festival. The first meeting was to form the festival preparation committee and elect a leader. Since I enjoy actively participating in planning, I volunteered for the committee and was assigned the role of Chief Choreographer. The Chief Choreographer is responsible for promotion and cheering at the festival booth. After dividing up our roles, we brainstormed ideas together for running the booth. Since the fall festival was in October, I suggested preparing a Halloween party where we could dress up and sell sweet pies or cakes. It was timely and could generate profit, so all my friends agreed, and we proceeded with that plan.
To run the Halloween party, the festival preparation committee split into two teams. One team primarily handled designing and decorating the booth, while the other planned how to make the items we would sell. I was part of the food-making team and also served as the cheer squad leader, so I was stretched thin. I paid close attention to managing my time well to avoid overlapping responsibilities or neglecting either role. When preparing food, I made sure to accompany the team whenever we went shopping for ingredients, offering suggestions on what to buy. Since my idea was to sell pies and cakes, the team respected my opinion and purchased affordable, high-quality products.
While the food team searched for recipes and practiced the preparation process, I would briefly excuse myself to manage the cheerleading team, moving around busily. The cheer team consisted of three members who planned to perform together in front of the booth. Since it was a Halloween party, we planned an eye-catching rap performance. To showcase the rap, we wrote the lyrics ourselves and based the song’s content on the festival preparation process, structuring it to be enjoyable for both the audience and listeners. On the day of the festival, I mainly focused on the rap performance while continuing my role as the DJ selecting the music. During breaks between performances, I helped the food team by flipping pancakes and moving freshly baked pies. Through this mutual cooperation, our department achieved the top revenue and overall ranking in the successful festival.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation and Reflections
“Party Planner Activities to Foster Class Fellowship”
Successfully running the school festival became the catalyst for me to set my career direction. Until then, I had vaguely thought I would graduate from the Tourism Business Department and then advance to a department related to events. However, while planning the Halloween party, I learned about the profession of ‘party planner’ and discovered its appeal. I was thrilled by the idea that my own ideas and plans could bring joy to many people. That’s why I decided to specifically pursue a degree in Tourism Event Management and set my sights on becoming a party planner.
Planning parties and managing the preparation process myself was incredibly addictive—once I started, I couldn’t stop. So, even after the festival ended, I was still buzzing with excitement and soon planned a separate class party. Gathering friends who shared similar dreams, I set my sights on November 11th, Pepero Day. While all friends were attending school and typically exchanged Pepero to share affection, I felt that wasn’t enough and wanted to elevate it. So, instead of just buying expensive Pepero to give away, we decided to purchase a large quantity of Pepero ourselves and create a spectacular event.
Before the event day, I introduced the Pepero Day plan we’d planned with friends to the class and collected a small amount from everyone to buy separate Pepero to share. To set a festive mood, we hung elegant curtains on the classroom windows the day before. We lined up the desks in rows and laid large white paper sheets over them to create a party atmosphere.
Placing a vase and silver tray on top, then arranging the Pepero on them, completed the perfect party setting. The next morning, when the teacher and classmates arrived and saw the classroom, they were all amazed. We enjoyed a fun morning party, eating Pepero and drinking beverages. Through this experience of cooperatively preparing the party together, sharing joy, and seeing that joy multiply, I came to love parties.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation and Career Plans
“A Party Planner Shaped by Home and School Environments”
My home environment afforded me more opportunities to enjoy and experience things than my peers, for which I was always grateful to my parents. My father runs a trade-related business, and my mother has worked as a hotelier for many years. Since childhood, I frequently visited their workplaces and observed them at work. I especially frequented the hotel where my mother worked like it was my second home, observing the various events held there. Weddings, 60th birthday celebrations, gatherings for foreign embassies, training retreat after-parties—events for diverse purposes unfolded before my eyes. After becoming a high school student, I transitioned from merely observing to actively assisting as a helper.
Growing up surrounded by so many events and parties naturally led me to take on the role of a party planner during my school life. During festivals, I successfully planned and executed Halloween parties. After that, whenever monthly class events occurred, I served as the ‘event planner’. While this role wasn’t formally assigned like an officer position, all my classmates recognized me as the event person, and I enjoyed that recognition. Building on these internal and external efforts, I applied to the Event Department at ○○ University to become a professional party planner equipped with specialized knowledge and practical experience.
The events and parties I’ve participated in or observed so far have often been on a smaller scale and for everyday purposes. However, I aspire to plan parties with larger objectives and for more people in the tourism industry, such as at hotels, cruise ships, or various banquet venues. For instance, I aspire to take on challenges like planning post-summit banquets for gatherings of international leaders. To achieve this, I plan to dedicate significant effort to acquiring the specialized knowledge and practical skills taught in the Event Studies program. Beyond my coursework, I will fully leverage internship opportunities to gain meaningful experience at relevant large corporations. Building on this foundation, I will establish pathways to apply for positions within these companies and advance my career.
