SO Wai-yan Wynnie || BSc (Hons) Tourism Management || Walt Disney World Resort, USA

As its founder Walter E. Disney saying goes: Disneyland is a place where “youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future”. The motto not only applies to the visitors to Disney, but also to So Wai-yan Wynnie, a second-year Tourism Management student, who interned at the U.S entertainment giant this summer.

Working at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, the largest theme park in the world, Wynnie was first introduced to “Disney Service”. She says, “Disney has a very strong enterprise culture. Every cast member and all front-desk staff are dedicated to create a magical moment for people to escape from reality. All temporary staff including us also received proper training sessions in performing ‘Disney Service’, which is one step ahead of good service.”

In addition, there are regular business seminars about company background, basic food and beverage management, cash handling, culinary training and on-job training. “This training complements my studies such as service management and marketing,” she says.

During the three-month placement, Wynnie worked under the Full Service Food and Beverage Section and was rotated to different positions in a restaurant from cooking, to table making, to guest serving. “We were trained to help guests in every aspect, treating every guest as a VIP and providing personalised service,” she says.

Immersed in the Western Culture

Wynnie was grateful to experience the deep-rooted American culture and patriotism. She says, “Practical understanding of other countries’ culture is very important for tourism study and it really widened my horizons.”

Despite it taking her some time to get used to the kissing and hugging greeting culture of Americans, she was impressed by how the American celebrated the Fourth of July. “I watched the Independence Day Fireworks show and it was fantastic! Americans are very patriotic. They all dressed and made-up in the colors of the national flag. I was really impressed,” she says.

Wynnie thinks the internship took place at the right time when she needed to review her career pursuit and study before graduation. “The frequent interaction with tourists in the park made me realise the advantage of learning one more foreign language. Since a large number of people in the U.S., such as Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, can only speak Spanish, I think it will be beneficial to my future career to know one more language,” she says.

Wynnie has now gained confidence to meet challenges. “The experience has strengthened my confidence about working in the dynamic tourism industry. I will equip myself to meet the up-coming challenges and look for opportune moments,” she concluded.