Faık Alsac:

“The MInIstry should support the rIght type of tourIsm In the rIght regIon."

Would you introduce yourself? How did you start your career in tourism sector?

After graduating from Tourism and Hospitality Management School, I studied English Language and Literature. 1974 was the year I first stepped into a hotel building. Etap Marmara is where I grew professionally. I worked in the front office. I have been working as general manager since 1993. I have worked in many professional associations related with tourism among which are Aegean Hoteliers Association, Izmir CVB, and Skal.

As the new president, can you touch upon recent plans and activities of SKAL?

Let me speak of Skal, which was founded in Paris on 28 April 1934 is a professional association founded to create friendship among senior staff working in tourism sector. It has 18000 members in the world and 1000 members in Turkey where we have 17 clubs and the National Committee. Clubs were organized as an association and the National Committee was founded in 2011 as a federation. Thus, I am the president of the National Committee or the Federation. The main goal of our activities is to create friendship and to make permanent connections among our members. In the beginning, there was nothing as doing business in Skal. Recently, collaborating is among our goals. In my term I am striving to accomplish this. For this purpose we are upgrading our website (www.skalturkey.com). Also, a new membership category -Young Skals- made up of tourism students or employees aged between 18 and 29 has been established; however, their principles are not quite clear yet. We are working on a new status offer which we will propound in the next world congress.

SKAL supports education. What are some scholarships you award?

The idea came up in a meeting in 2015. In the beginning, it was more of a student aid fund, but during a small talk, it changed to education scholarship. The name of the scholarship is Omur Caglar, our deceased member, so as not to forget his memory. The scholarship has been awarded ever since. Only tourism students can earn our scholarship. This year we have awarded 10 students a monthly 400 Turkish Liras. Our aim is not to provide economic assistance but help students enjoy internships in excellent facilities and find jobs upon graduation.

2017 SKALITE- Quality Awards in Tourism event was named 'Despite Everything'. How do you define this period and what are your future projections?

Skalite Istanbul is an event organised by our club's priceless efforts and this year's motto was 'Despite Everything'. Turkish foreign policy and terrorist incidents have dealt a blow to tourism sector. The figures are accessible on websites of professional associations. Sometime after these incidents people were aiming only to survive, make money, but later started to find new markets. You can enter a new market through tempting price offers. A tempting price means reduced prices and employers are affected by reductions in the first place. Then austerity measures are used. Professions in tourism and especially in hotel management are suitable for happy people. It is a sector which requires flexible and long working hours, and not taking leaves. Employees are expected to have a smiling face and provide service sincerely, which can only be possible when you make employees happy. We aren't making our employees happy these days, but hopefully this period won't last long. We are in a time period when it is hard to plan even the coming month. Making future projections would be fortune telling.

Short-term tactical plans of tourism were based on "weathering the economic storm". In your opinion what should be Turkey's tourism strategy?

As I mentioned above, it is all about surviving first and making money next! Turkey is a big country and it is possible to do many things for tourism and they should be done, too. Tourists prefer to visit peaceful regions and ensuring peace should be our first goal. Ministry of Culture and Tourism should be separated. They are both connected but separate concepts. Their politics are different. The ministers for tourism should come from within the sector. Tourism regions should clearly be identified by the Ministry of Tourism such as which hotels should be "all included", which regions will host congresses, which regions will cater for health tourism, etc. There are some weird things going on in our country. For instance, there are convention centres in summer destinations. Another place where there is a nuclear plant struggles to attract tourists. The Ministry should prevent these types of wrong investments and encourage right type of tourism in right places.

What would you suggest to people aiming to have a career in tourism sector?

Education is the key. They should make use of all opportunities schools offer. If I were a student, I would definitely try to learn everything from teachers. Another important thing is learning a foreign language. Knowing English is a must but definitely not sufficient. They should learn one more language, too. These days one who memorizes 50 words of another language thinks she/he knows that language. I don't mean this. Internships are also important. They should start from the base level. If a first year student wanted to do an internship in sales department, this would be absurd! First, you should know what to sell. Students should keep this in mind: They work for us, but learn for their own sake. And lastly, they should read books. I have known many people with a university diploma, but cannot speak or write about anything.

Finally, what are your favourite holiday destinations?

I generally spend my time making observations in big hotels and holiday resorts, so I prefer to stay in small towns, boutique hotels, or hostels. I have been visiting the Black Sea coast for a couple of years.

www.skalturkey.com