20th Anniversary Dinner

Time really flies! We graduated from the PolyU SHTM 11 years back already! I am surprised to find out this year is the 20th anniversary of our Alumni Association!

With a boisterous theme of "Orange colour and Chic", hundreds of school friends came along together to form a harmony sunny look of “oranges” in the Jockey Club dining hall! Amidst rumbustious chatting and scrumptious food going with different types of wines, everyone truly enjoyed the great time! We appreciated all the exciting activities including live band singing, dancing, lucky draws, special guitar performance by the President and warm speeches from honored guests and graduates. We were so happy to see those FIRST graduates from the hotel school! In the coming SHTMAA activities, we love to see them again, hear more sharing from them, learn and grow with each other!

My heartfelt thanks to those SHTMAA committee members for contributing their own time to make this special event successful and memorable!

Frances Chan

Community Day

There are groups of minorities in our community which are always neglected by us. Seldom do we put resources and effort in assisting them in integrating themselves into the society. Also, after the conversation with my Nepal friend, I understand the difficulties and Hong Kongers’ misconception towards them. Seeing the limitation in this aspect, I proposed to SHTMAA an event called “Accommodating The Ethnic Minorities” to enhance the development of an inclusive society.

The ethnic minorities may encounter difficulties in continue their study or find a promising job due to the language problem and the bias of the employers. Instead of direct financial aids, studying and working opportunities are their authentic needs. Thus, I worked with the alumni association for organizing a hotel visit so as to introduce the hotel industry to them. After overcoming the difficulties, the event was successfully held on 28 February. It is appreciated that the hotel provided the students a precious chance to visit its back office, club floor, guestrooms and lobby. During the event, I found that most of them are cheerful and showed strong interest for working in hotel. They actively participated during the visit and ask and answer questions. Their personality, proficient English, and other skills are definitely matching with the requirement of the hotel industry.

I hope that they can hold their positive attitude towards their life no matter what difficulties they will come across.

Stephen Tai

A few weeks ago, my classmates, teachers and I visited Hotel Panarama in Tsim Sha Tsui. As soon as we reached there, we students were divided into two groups. Then we were given a talk about the hotel by Alison Yau. She told us about the staff there and their hotels. I found her quite interesting. There was something in her that kept me awake through the talk.

Then we went around the hotel. I liked it a lot. The top floor was kind of cool. A beautiful view and fresh air could be enjoyed. The buffet prices also seemed kind of cheap to me. I wish I could try it that very moment.

After that, we were again given a talk about how we could get into the hotel industry. It was quite informative. Listening to the talk, we could decide if we would like to work in hotels in the future.

In the end, we were all given a bag of souvenirs each including a cute teddy bear inside.

I really enjoyed the visit to this hotel. If I ever have to recommend one to others, I might consider this one.

Anjali

On 28th February, I went to vist Panorama Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui with my classmates from Tourism and Hospitality Studies group. This was the first time I had visited the hotel and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

When we arrived at the beautiful hotel, we were escorted to the meeting room on the 39th floor, which is the hotel’s executive floor. There we learnt basic knowledge about the hotel through a talk given by Alison Yau, who is from the hotel’s Sales & Marketing Department. After the talk, we started our tour around the hotel.

First, we went to the Sky Garden, an open area for relaxing and enjoying the view of Tsim Sha Tsui. Then, we went to two restaurants of the hotel. After that, we went to see the room where there are supply of linen, pillows and blankets. We also passed by the room where the staff have a meeting. Towards the end, we went to the ground floor to see the front dest. The activity I enjoyed most was visiting the hotel rooms.

This visit was very interesting. After the visit, I can say my knowledge about hotels has increased. I learnt how Panorama Hotel decides the price of a room per night in order to compete with other hotels. I also found out how the staff attends to every need of their guests. Everything I learnt during the visit is useful if I choose to work in a hotel.

Sabita

Would you like to share with us for recent alumni activities you participated? We look forward to hearing more from you! Please send your articles to: evan.mak@polyu.edu.hk.