German and French lessons on offer to tourism sector staff
Irish hospitality workers are being offered a chance to sharpen their language skills in a move to make county Sligo and the surrounding areas more tourist friendly.
The new Intercultural and Language Awareness Training Programme: New Markets, New Skills is an initiative by the Sligo Chamber Skillnet to help businesses and staff around the county give tourists a proper Céad Míle Fáilte.
The programme will initially be rolled out with a focus on German and French visitors to make it easier to communicate and excel in meeting their needs. Lessons will focus on training front of house staff and sales and marketing teams that work in tourism businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, cafes, retail stores and activities centres.
The plan is to improve the service offered to tourists by helping staff acquire language and intercultural skills to welcome visitors in their own language, and to optimise sales through face to face selling at market events, as well as sales overseas via phone and online services.
Commenting, H.E. Deike Potzel, German Ambassador to Ireland said: “I very much wel- come new opportunities for people working in the hospitality and tourism sector in Sligo to develop and strengthen German language skills.
“I hope and trust that this initiative will both benefit German speaking tourists, and programme participants as foreign language skills are a great way to broaden horizons.”
Speaking about the programme, Sligo Chamber of Commerce CEO Aidan Doyle said: “We are delighted to partner with IT Sligo in providing this innovative Language and Intercultural Awareness Programme for the Hospitability and Tourism Sector.
“This is a great opportunity for tourism in the region to build on customer service and sales capability within European and global markets. This will also complement other agencies who are delivering a wide range of supports in the region.
“All tourism businesses, their employees, inbound tourism enterprises and visitors are set to benefit.” The first language and intercultural courses will begin in German and French in January 2019. The courses will be delivered by IT Sligo.