This blog post introduces career goals and creative vision-setting methods that students aspiring to major in Tourism Management should include in their academic plans.
Academic Experience and Reflections at Information High School
While attending Information High School, I engaged in systematic study of information systems. Our school aimed to cultivate global talent by dividing its departments into two major fields: Accounting Information and Trade Information. It also featured a flexible educational system where students could freely choose and take courses from other departments based on their career paths. Thanks to this system, I too did not hesitate to select and take necessary classes regardless of departmental boundaries, enabling tailored learning aligned with my career goals.
My ultimate goal is to become a hotel manager. As a first step, I aimed to build a solid foundation in understanding overall corporate management. To achieve this, I diligently completed various accounting and management-related courses offered by the school, focusing particularly on subjects like Accounting Information, Logistics Management, and Corporate Management, which form the basis of business administration.
Within my Accounting major, I concentrated on understanding accounting information systems. To develop the ability to directly manage and analyze financial and accounting systems from a managerial perspective in the future, I focused not only on theory but also on gaining practical skills. To this end, I systematically learned the basic structure and flow of information systems through diverse courses like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Information Management Practice, Corporate Accounting, and Introduction to Management. Rather than focusing solely on technical aspects, I built a foundation for long-term growth by learning to understand practical applications based on theory.
Although I was not formally enrolled in the Department of International Trade, I recognized that trade-related knowledge was also crucial given my goal of pursuing hotel management. Consequently, I also selectively completed courses like International Trade Practice and Logistics Management. These classes helped me understand the systems managing corporate import/export processes and their flow, broadening my perspective to encompass external business activities. I realized that the ability to systematize and manage external transaction flows through information technology is just as important as learning systems for analyzing profits and losses and generating profits within a company.
Furthermore, since knowledge directly related to the tourism industry, particularly hotel management, was not included in the school curriculum, I supplemented this area through self-study via reading. I sought out and read books on tourism and the hotel industry, striving to study broadly from fundamental concepts to real-world management cases. This complementary learning, conducted alongside my major studies, was also highly beneficial in cultivating the habit of studying independently, maintaining self-motivation, and not relying solely on school classes.
These high school experiences became a crucial foundation for my future path. Through practice-oriented education, autonomous course selection, and self-directed learning, I gained a broad understanding of management and systems. This enabled me to design a more concrete path toward my dream of becoming a hotel manager. Moving forward, I plan to build upon these learnings and experiences to accumulate more specialized and practical management knowledge.
Key School Activities and Reflections
Management Begins with Information and People Management
My high school was a boarding school where most students lived in dormitories. I also lived in the dormitory and, due to my excellent conduct record, was assigned dormitory management duties. This activity went beyond simple school volunteer work; it was a responsible role that included managerial tasks.
The dormitory management volunteer role also came with certain privileges. For instance, I could be in a slightly more flexible position regarding discipline, but this required significantly more responsibility and effort. I had to stay up later and wake up earlier than regular students to assist with dormitory operations, and my attitude and behavior as a manager always had to be exemplary.
My primary duty was managing information related to dormitory access. This involved verifying when students left and returned, and accurately recording these times. I also documented demerits that counted toward their conduct grades, inputting them into a computer program to manage cumulative scores.
Demerits were assigned for various reasons. Common examples included returning after the designated roll call time or engaging in unauthorized behavior within the dormitory. Roll call times were relatively straightforward to manage since students only needed to sign the attendance sheet if absent at the designated time. However, cases of violating behavioral rules required judgment calls, making them harder to simply digitize.
For instance, while instant noodles and late-night snacks were prohibited in the dorm, some students would secretly boil noodles in the lounge. Especially after roll call, since the dorm supervisor didn’t patrol, it was practically impossible to catch such incidents unless I, as the designated monitor, recorded them. The problem was that in these situations, when close friends earnestly pleaded for leniency, I faced a human dilemma. It was difficult to ignore their pleas, yet I also felt conflicted because overlooking them felt unfair.
Above all, consistency was crucial. If I overlooked it in some cases but imposed demerits in others, it inevitably led to dissatisfaction with the rules. Through this, I realized that behind the surface role of ‘managing information’ lay the hidden task of managing people.
People’s emotions vary, and their actions are always unpredictable. It’s difficult to judge a student’s attitude based solely on the number of demerits. A high penalty point count doesn’t necessarily mean that student always exhibits problematic behavior, just as consistently attending roll call doesn’t guarantee good living habits.
After much deliberation, I compiled suggestions for improving dormitory discipline and submitted them to the dorm supervisor. The main points were as follows.
First, I requested a reduction in monitoring duties during the period after roll call. This time was primarily when most students engaged in personal grooming or completed assignments, and I too needed to focus on my studies. Second, I proposed relaxing the late-night snacking rules. In reality, many students enjoyed late-night snacks like instant noodles or delivery food after roll call. However, since getting caught depended purely on ‘luck,’ it led to fairness issues where some students received demerits for the same behavior while others got away with it.
In my proposal, I emphasized that the rule banning late-night snacks was out of touch with reality and could actually lead to greater dissatisfaction and disciplinary violations. Instead, I suggested allowing late-night snacks only during specific times and in designated areas, or setting clear boundaries to enable self-regulation. Of course, I also included a clause advocating a zero-tolerance policy for serious disciplinary violations, such as smoking, violence, or unauthorized absences.
Ultimately, my suggestions were partially adopted, and the rules were adjusted to be more realistic. My administrative workload was somewhat reduced, and overall student satisfaction increased.
This experience led me to deeply reflect on the difference between managing information and managing people, and the meaning of fairness. Simply inputting and recording numbers is insufficient for understanding and managing people. I learned that rules exist to enable everyone to live better in community, and those rules must be grounded in realism and fairness.
Moving forward, if I ever take on a managerial role in any organization, I resolved to be not just an enforcer of rules, but a facilitator who understands and coordinates people. This experience became a valuable starting point in my journey of learning management.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation, and My Reflections
I lived in the dormitory for two years while volunteering as a manager. Many things happened during that time, but the most memorable and meaningful moment was when the dormitory building I lived in was selected as the top-rated building in the dormitory cleanliness evaluation. This happy news prompted us to hold a pizza party with my dorm friends, and through that process, an atmosphere of naturally caring for and cherishing each other’s living space formed.
However, the dorm wasn’t always this clean and pleasant. In fact, when I first started volunteering, our dorm was considered to have the worst hygiene among the surrounding dorms. Being a space exclusively for male students, laundry wasn’t done on time, food waste was often discarded carelessly, and the bathrooms weren’t cleaned properly, leading to foul odors on every floor. Even when problems were pointed out, many students didn’t care much and continued leaving clothes or personal items scattered in the hallways.
Furthermore, door signs meant to be attached to each room would fall off or disappear, and incidents of students running in the hallways and damaging property were not uncommon. As these issues repeated, the dormitory’s management score steadily declined, eventually leading to restrictions on electricity and water usage. This directly caused inconvenience for all students, forcing us to face the reality that the mindset of “it’s just me” ultimately harmed everyone.
In that situation, I thought, ‘This can’t go on.’ Since it was a space where everyone lived together, I felt a turning point was needed to change the atmosphere and improve living habits. So I proposed to the dorm supervisor that we create a ‘Clean-Up Day’. On Clean-Up Day, we would clean our own rooms and the common areas, and inspect and repair any broken parts. We also replaced laundry scattered in the hallways with ‘One-Way’ stickers and installed signs on the walls with the message ‘A Living Space Where We Care for Each Other’.
At first, many students didn’t fully grasp the purpose of Beautification Day. Some found it bothersome, while others complained about why they had to do it. So I explained that we would select and award prizes for the cleanest room, and that dormitories could earn prizes based on their overall beautification scores. Gradually, the students’ attitudes began to shift. Each person made an effort to keep their own room tidier, and common areas like hallways and bathrooms became much cleaner.
Watching them look out for each other, help one another, and clean together, I felt this small attempt held greater meaning than I had imagined. The fact that an action started by one person could change the entire community, and that I was at the center of it, made me feel truly proud. Above all, it was a precious experience because it made me reexamine spaces I had previously ignored and changed my attitude toward the people I lived with.
Through this experience, I realized that consideration isn’t something grand; it starts with a small desire to keep shared spaces a little cleaner. Cooperation was the same. I learned it doesn’t come from following someone’s orders reluctantly, but from voluntary actions taken for everyone’s comfort. Moving forward, I want to build on this experience. No matter what community I belong to, I will strive to respect each other and work together to create a better environment. And I will never forget that change always starts with me.
Motivation for Application, Career Plans, and Preparations
Management for the hotel, not management for management’s sake
My dream is to become a hotel manager. Typically, when people think of hotel managers, they envision professional executives managing hotel branches within the tourism industry. However, my vision of a hotel manager is slightly different. Rather than simply engaging in ‘management for management’s sake,’ I want to establish a hotel I’ve personally envisioned and operate that space. For me, ‘management’ is not the goal but a means; the true purpose is the ‘hotel’. I want to learn and apply business management as a tool to efficiently and sustainably operate lodging facilities.
Perhaps the dream of ‘building a hotel’ might sound somewhat vague. However, with perceptions of housing and travel rapidly changing today, I believe this dream is far from unrealistic. Today, hotels are increasingly being used not just as temporary lodging during travel, but as temporary living spaces. Furthermore, as the domestic and international travel industries thrive, demand for simple lodgings and diverse accommodation types is steadily rising. Amidst this trend, I felt a need for a new concept in lodging spaces, distinct from existing hotels or guesthouses.
Therefore, I aim to design a new form of accommodation that combines the strengths of both guesthouses and hotels. The space I envision is an evolution of the typical guesthouse, characterized by a simple and free-spirited atmosphere while offering hotel-level professional service. I am confident it will appeal not only to domestic travelers enjoying trips within Korea but also to foreign backpackers. My goal is to create a place people want to stay—a space where the essence of travel and comfort coexist, not merely a place to sleep.
To realize this plan, I applied to the Tourism Management Department at ○○ University. ○○ University particularly appealed to me for its educational vision and environment focused on the future of the tourism industry. While Seoul, Busan, and Jeju Island have traditionally been the main destinations for foreign tourists, now is the time to discover and develop new regional tourism resources. Among these, Gangwon Province stands out as a region blessed with pristine natural environments and stunning winter landscapes. It offers significant potential for developing diverse tourism products by linking seasonal attractions like ski resorts.
Building on this potential, I aim to establish a moderately sized guest hotel in Gangwon Province. This hotel would cater to both foreign backpackers and domestic travelers, simultaneously meeting their needs. I aspire to create a space that offers experiences beyond simple lodging and contributes to revitalizing local tourism. At ○○ University, I will cultivate specialized knowledge and practical skills in tourism management, taking one step closer to that dream.
Through ‘Management for Hotels,’ I aspire to create spaces that linger in memory, not merely places for a brief rest. And I intend to take that first step at ○○ University.
