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“After school I decided to do Arts because I was interested in geography, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, so that kind of kept my options open. I decided to do the Masters after working in the tourist office here in Carlow in the summer of second year in college.
I had an interest in tourism and holidays in Ireland and wanted to try out working in it. I sent in my CV to the tourist office and I loved it from the start. I ended up working there every summer. That’s why I decided to do the Masters.
We had an assignment for each subject and exams for nearly all of the subjects.
In the Masters course, we did Marketing Management, Planning and Policy, Heritage, Accounting and Finance, HRM, Tourism Law, Management Transport Operations and IT.
I liked Heritage because it was very practical. There was no exam in it, we had to make a different A3 board each week on a theme, like buildings – it was a bit arty – then we’d have to present our boards to the class and say why we thought the things on it were particularly interesting to tourists.
Marketing was good too because we went on a field trip to Limerick and had assignments based on this. We went on a walking tour of the town, went to museums, Dolan’s pub, went out to the tourist office and got a talk from the people who work for Shannon development.
I really enjoyed the assignment for product development as I got to work on something for Carlow. I developed a product for Carlow called the Dolmen Rock Festival. Other assignments included a class project working with Aer Lingus, researching the licensing of travel agents and examining the effect of redundancy for employees.
We also had to complete a thesis of 15,000 words. I did mine on the impact of volunteers for festivals. It’s an important part of the course as it is worth 40% of total result.
It was a good course, I found it interesting and it helped me developed my communication skills. The lecturers were very approachable, it’s a small class so I made really good friends. I went to conferences and got to listen to impressive guest speakers. I’d recommend anyone to take this route. Studying Geography in UCD allowed me to take a class in Tourism and Information Studies provided me with practical skills for the work place.
I’d advise those interested in studying tourism to see can they get some work experience, to see if they like the work and if there’s a particular area of Tourism they’re interested in.
When I finished my Masters I went working full-time into the Tourist Information Office in Carlow, where I’d been working in the summers. It’s a small office, so I’m on my own, responsible for the day to day running of it. My job is to promote a positive image of tourism in Carlow. I answer enquiries from tourists and from companies and make bookings for them – customer service is a really important aspect of this job. I also look after all the administration and financial side of the office, check deliveries and invoices and write weekly reports on activity. I really enjoy my job as I get to meet lots of interesting people every day both tourists and locals. Carlow is a great destination, there is so much to see and do, from visiting the famous Brownhills Dolmen, taking a relaxing stroll through any of its gardens or paragliding off Mount Leinster.
I’d like to continue in this area - in the future I’d like to work for Fáilte Ireland or Tourism Ireland.”