Hotel Event Planning for School Groups
How a Degree in Hospitality Management could Prepare you for Working with Educational Tours
School tourism is a huge portion of the tourism industry. This allows students to come to areas such as Hampton Roads’ Historic Triangle to experience history instead of simply learning it from textbooks. But in order for students to go on these extended field trips, there has to be talented hotel event planners with a solid background in hospitality management to make it all possible.
When you think of an event planner, you might think of a wedding or business conference, but event planners can also work on school trips as well. If you love working with children, organizing all of the little details, and going the extra mile to ensure a wonderful experience, then this could be a career option for you. Here is a more in-depth look at how an event planner helps make these school trips come together.
Skills Needed to Handle School Groups on Educational Tours
School groups are unlike any other group you will encounter. They’re high energy and need special consideration due to the age of the group members. Because these groups come from different parts of the country, or even the world, you never know what to expect.
You might find yourself taking care of a group filled with 60 middle schoolers who had two hours of sleep at an airport because their flight was delayed. You might encounter high school students who want to know literally everything there is to possibly know about the area and they can’t stop asking you questions. The possibilities are endless.
Here are some of the skills a successful event planner will need:
- Organizational Skills: The smallest detail has to be attended to for these school groups. Forgetting to make one phone call could mean they turn up for a tour at Jamestown and there’s no one to guide them. Keeping on top of everything is essential for a successful tour.
- Interpersonal Skills: When you’re dealing with children and adults of all ages from different parts of the country, and possibly the world, it’s needless to say, you need excellent interpersonal skills. Being able to communicate, clearly, effectively, and so everyone understands you is very important when orchestrating large groups of people.
- Problem-Solving Skills: Think fast. This job is going to throw unexpected events at you. You have to be quick on your feet and able to come up with solutions to problems immediately. What happens if a tour guide doesn’t arrive on time? What if the motor coach breaks down halfway to Yorktown? What if a child gets sick on the bus or forgets an important item in their hotel room? You have to be able to work out solutions to keep everyone happy and satisfied.
- Calmness: When faced with the transport and entertainment of scores of children and their chaperones, it’s easy to become flustered or frustrated. But an event planner knows how to manage their stress and never let a guest, whether a student or an adult, know they are feeling the pressure.
Job Duties as an Event Planner for Educational Tours
Your job as an event planner for school groups is to ensure everyone learns, enjoys themselves, and stays safe during their trip. You will work with a team of people, including tour guides, historical sites, and tour coordinators, to make sure everything goes smoothly. Here are some of the tasks you might be expected to handle during your time with a school group.
- Coordinating transportation: Moving a lot of people from hotels to events to meals to tours can be difficult. You have to make sure the bus drivers are present, on time, and know their itinerary.
- Arranging tours: When you work with a school group it’s important to know exactly what they would like to experience from their tours and what is age-appropriate for their group. If you have a particularly young group you might not want to send them on a late-night ghost tour in Colonial Williamsburg. If you have a group of high schoolers, they will be bored with a tour intended for elementary school students. Finding the right tours and events for your group is essential.
- Working with teachers and parents: Although the children are the focus of the event, it’s the educators and chaperones you will be working most closely with. Making sure the adults in the group feel taken care of and happy can sometimes be more complicated than meeting the students’ needs.
- Handling emergencies: When there are large groups of people with varying age ranges traveling together, a lot can go wrong. While the group is out of town, unsure of the area, and in need of assistance, they might turn to you to help them. You will need to be prepared for the smallest of problems like a phone charger breaking to someone needing emergency medical care.
What do I Need to Become an Event Planner for School Groups?
If you’re interested in group planning for schools, you will need a combination of factors in order to be successful. First of all, you will need experience in the hospitality industry. You will need to understand, up close, how the industry works and develop some excellent customer service skills. Starting out as a desk auditor at a hotel or a tour guide for a local company could help you build these skills and gain experience.
Next, you will need the skills mentioned previously. Not everyone has the right personality and expertise to be an event planner. There are lots of other possibilities, even within hospitality management, if this isn’t right for you.
Finally, you will need a strong educational background in both the hospitality field and how to be an effective manager and business person. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates a lot of event planners obtain degrees in hospitality management to give them the training they need to handle the tasks and responsibilities for this position.
Keep in mind that many times an event planner who works at a hotel is going to be multi-faceted. Often a hotel’s event planner will handle every kind of event from weddings to school trips. In order to be successful, you need a solid foundation to build off of and education can be that foundation.
Just got back from an ECPI University Open House event. Made really think about my career choices.
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Do you fit the above description? If you're interested in becoming a hotel event planner and helping to coordinate school tours, you should consider ECPI University’s Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree with a concentration in Hospitality Management. With ECPI University’s required externship, students can gain some hands-on experience in the industry while studying and could earn their degrees in as a little as 2.5 years with our accelerated schedule. If you think a degree in hospitality management is right for you, contact ECPI University today to find out more about your options.
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