W

ith a growing tendency to experience and visit new places, high school students have expressed an interest in working in the hospitality industry.

Hanzel Christheo Pranadjaja, a Grade 12 student at SMK Santa Theresia in Central Jakarta, said he hoped to find a university with a hospitality management major that he could join next year.

“I wanted to study hospitality management ever since I was in junior high school.

“I actually want to have my own business. My parents guided me to take tourism because of my passion for traveling,” he said on Saturday at an education fair at SMA Santa Theresia in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Hanzel, who majors in tourism, said he had been inspired by travelers who have posted their stories in social media and wanted to be like them; traveling around the world for free, even getting paid for traveling.

The University of Indonesia’s (UI) Demographic Institute said the young generation, also known as millennials, have a tendency to travel more than the previous generation.

While millennials focused on experiencing new things, people of their age group in the 1990s, during the New Order era, focused on shoring up their financial security.

Comparing data from 1995 and 2015 on Jakarta residents aged 16 to 30 from the National Social Economy Survey (Susenas), it was found that in 2015 young people spent more money on traveling and processed food than those in 1995.

In 1995, only 18.4 percent of people aged 26 to 30 traveled regularly. By 2015, that number had risen to 26.2 percent.

The advent of the internet and social media as well as easier access to passports and visas have also contributed to the rise in more people traveling.

Delphinia Priscilla, a Grade 12 student at SMA Santa Theresia who is majoring in social affairs, said she is also interested in hospitality management because she wants a career in traveling. “I want to major in hospitality management because I love traveling,” she said.

Delphinia added that traveling could give her new experiences and majoring in hospitality management could give her insight about travel-related jobs.

Jessica Edelyne, another student at SMK Santa Theresia majoring in tourism, also looked to the education fair for some inspiration.

“I am truly passionate about tourism and foreign languages.

“I’m studying tourism at high school, so I want to take literature or hospitality majors as the next step in my education,” said Jessica who wants to be a stewardess.

“I love travelling. I want to travel the world by being stewardess even though my mother does not really support it.

“She preferred me to become a tour leader instead, but she does not oppose my plan [to work in traveling industry],” Jessica added.

The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post