Exploring Hotel Management Education at KHBO Bruges: An Overview of Facts and Figures

1. HOTEL MANAGEMENTat KHBO Lode Vanwildemeersch Dany De Wispelaere

2. Bruges: facts and figures • Situated in Flanders – the Dutch speaking part of Belgium • Capital of the province of West-Vlaanderen • Number of inhabitants: • Inner city: 25,000 • City and city surroundings: 117,000 • 844 inh/sq km

3. Major industries: • Tourism • Harbour activities

4. Tourism (2006): • Turnover: approx. 280 million euro • 4,000,000 tourists (national and international) • 1,250,000 guests stay overnight • 75% of these 1,250,000 guests are summer guests • Total lodging capacity: over 9,600 beds • Average stay: approx 1.8 nights

5. Tourism (2006): • Remarkable: Almost 90% of the hotelguests have a purely recreational purpose, only 10% can be labeled as business guests (MICE/business) • Today 112 hotels with approx. 3,200 rooms • 38% are ***-hotels & 27% are ****-hotels

6. Tourism:

7. Harbour activities (2006): • 39,300,000 tons of goods and commodities a year • Major trafic: containers (18 million tons), cars (1,930,000: world leader) and liquified bulk (especially LNG) (6,300,000 tons) • A constant rise in the number of cruise ships (2006: 54 ships). All these ships have Bruges on the agenda.

8. Bruges: renowned secondary hotel schools • Hotel and Tourism School « Spermalie » and «Ter Groene Poorte » have a tremendous reputation and guarantee quality on a secondary education level • The higher education of hotel management at KHBO works closely together with these renowned partners

9. Bruges: hotel management at KHBO • 1987-2006 (19 academic years): 522 graduates • Sufficient jobs for the graduates • Increasing number of jobs in the catering business • The graduates also find jobs in supplying and related sectors and other sectors • Six months after graduation almost 100% of the graduates have a job • One year after graduation all graduates are employed = full employment

10. Your future after having studied hotel management Wim De Wulf Jan Vandekerckhove Dany De Wispelaere

11. Introduction • Examined period: 1987-2006 • 19 academic years • Examined group in 2006: 522 qualified

12. Partition as to gender (1) Stable ratio throughout the years

13. Geographical spread (1)

14. Geographical spread (2) • Majority stays in Belgium: 88.9% • Flanders: 76.5% • Brussels: 10.6% International institutes • Wallonia: 1.9% • Europe: 8.7% • Rest of the World: 2.4%

15. Employment sectors (1) • Majority in hotel and related business: 55.3% • Hotel sector: 36.8% • Restaurant: 11.9% • Supplying: 4.2% • Related: 2.4% • Other sectors: 44.7% (e.g. distribution, forwarding, employment agencies, banking and insurance, education, informatics, continue studies, etc.)

16. Employment sectors (2) So: the training is sufficiently practical AND sufficiently all-round VERSATILITY

17. Partition in the hotel business • 91% as an employee • 71% in chain hotels • 20% in stand-alone hotels • 9% as a proprietor

18. Positions practised in the hotel business • Reception & reservations: 36.0% • All round duties: 20.9% • Sales & marketing/guest relations: 9.4% • Banqueting & conference: 9.4% • F&B/cost control: 15.1% They account for 90.6%

19. Positions practised in the hotel business (2) • Night audit and secretarial duties/personnel: 2.1% • Accounting: 1.4% • Housekeeping/rooms division: 3.6% • Other: 2.2%

20. Qualifications • Majority have managerial duties: 67.6% • Employee: 32.4% • Higher and top management: 25.2%

21. Qualifications (2) The leading positions have an excellent average (middle management: 42.4%, higher management: 7.2% and top management: 18.0%) 8.7% have their own business

22. Conclusions (1) • There are slightly more female graduates • Most graduates work in Belgium (88.9%) • More than half of the graduates works in the catering and hospitality business or a related business

23. Conclusions (2) • Working as an employee in a chain hotel in the hotel sector takes an important position • Some choose to set up their own business, not all of them in the hotel sector • Initially our graduates hold a broad range of hotel positions with reception & reservations as the number one position

24. Conclusions (3) • Pretty soon they take up middle management responsibility • A majority of graduates have managerial duties • Lots of other sectors appreciate the know-how and versatility of our graduates

25. Basic principles of our education • Every year consists of two semesters and every semester stands alone • The number of contacts between teachers and students gradually decreases from year 1 to year 3 • The importance of self-study, self-reliance,… increases from year 1 to year 3 • Complying with the European bachelor-master directives • Equilibrium among practice, languages and management subjects • A high reality quality of the training • Offer a high degree of student coaching • Student’s participation

26. Work placement & management case • 1st year: a 1 week programme in a small hotel (2nd semester) • 2nd year: practical internal work placement of 6 weeks in the 2nd half of the 1st semester + work placement assignment • 3rd year: work placement, mostly abroad, of 20 weeks + management case linked to the hotel where the student is staying

27. External partners • There is a powerful and extensive network of external partners, from hotel schools to trainee posts, and many have an international character

28. HOTEL MANAGEMENT at KHBO Your future starts here!