Greater Palm Springs welcomes more than 14 million visitors each year, and tourism officials want this number to grow. More direct flights in and out of the expanding Palm Springs International Airport, major upgrades to hotels and resorts, and new accommodations, events, and attractions are driving the additional visitation.
In lockstep, the demand for hospitality professionals is on the rise — and a prevailing preference for homegrown talent will ensure visitors enjoy a more authentic experience. For that, we may eventually thank the hospitality management program at California State University, San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus.
In its fourth year, the program offered through the school’s Department of Marketing includes coursework in restaurant management, computer simulation, and hotel operations. The goal is to grow hotel and restaurant managers, club managers, event planners, tour operators, and marketers in the Coachella Valley rather than import them from outside of the desert communities.
Visit Greater Palm Springs, the region’s destination marketing organization, instigated the creation of the program when it brought the need to the leadership of the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus.
The program, which has almost 100 students enrolled this fall, surveys different areas of hospitality management and emphasizes “soft skills,” including empathy and social and emotional intelligence. “[In] some ways, it teaches you to be a better person,” says Joseph Tormey, director of the hospitality management program. “College has the potential to change [a student’s] trajectory from a social-economic standing. This program is doing that.”
Some students already work full-time at large resorts and organizations in the area. When they graduate from the program, they will be well versed in customer service, finance, marketing, and operations — ready for the workforce.
“It’s a combination of those skill sets that our employers are looking for, and that often takes a mix of education — formal education but also experience in the real world,” says Davis Meyer, vice president of government and industry relations at Visit Greater Palm Springs, noting that internships provide opportunities to put their skills to the test and learn more on the job.
The program at CSUSB Palm Desert aligns not only with the industry but also with an educational pathway that begins in local high schools. OneFuture Coachella Valley, a nonprofit organization that promotes college and career success, helps bring industry leaders to classrooms and facilitates internship and scholarship opportunities to propel students into the field.
“We help [students] find internships, and we host a number of workshops to help them navigate and complete college and then return back to the [Coachella] Valley to work,” says Kim McNulty, vice president of regional strategy at OneFuture.
Local students interested in working in the robust field of tourism and hospitality management now have a clear pathway to grow and become managers, directors, and executives.
