The University of Mpumalanga has opened a hotel on its Mbombela Campus to expose Tourism and Hospitality Management students, among others, to explainer training.
The Tfokomala Hotel is open for business and is a fully-fledged hotel on campus. The hotel is for students’ practical training while competing with industry players at the same time.
The hotel’s main mandate is to equip these hospitality students with certain skills and attributes.
Hospitality And Tourism Management Professor July Sibanyoni says, “ How this is done is, this is the integration of the classroom teaching the knowledge that students are gaining from the classroom. They are given an opportunity to put it into practice in this hotel.”
The initiative is seen as an initiative that will boost the tourism industry while giving students in-service training as early as the first year.
Hotel And Catering Services Director Tenson Nkosana explains, “It is a commercial hotel. This is a four-star hotel, so the service excellence that we are giving to the public, with the students being part of the university. It’s a universal hotel. it’s open to the public, while also giving students experience.”
Tourism contributes considerably to the province’s Gross Domestic Product. –Reporting by: Nhlanhla Jele
