LETTER | The first Visit Malaysia Year in 1990 made a huge impact on the local tourism industry and our country. The theme "Fascinating Malaysia. Year of Festivals" attracted foreign visitors and energised Malaysians, making citizens prouder of our country and eager to play hosts to tourists.

And over the past three decades, a huge number of school leavers enrolled to study tourism as many public and private institutions of higher learning offered diploma and degree courses in tourism management, hospitality management or a combination of both.

But the percentage of tourism graduates that were hired by large hotels or travel agencies was alarmingly low, as they lacked industry-relevant knowledge and skills, which were difficult to pick up on the job for those weak in language and communication skills.

Ironically, many graduates expected to be paid based on their academic qualifications and some found it unpalatable if they have to work below classmates who have started working right after leaving school and had gained valuable job experience and performed well at work.

Studying tourism was a waste of time if there had been little personal development, such as in higher order thinking skills (HOTS). Instead, students were spoon-fed with answers and completed assignments by compiling online information using cut and paste or plagiarising.

Sadly, few graduates could define tourism meaningfully. Most had no idea about work or made a career plan during the study and upon graduation, as they applied for jobs randomly in various industries. They had studied because they did not have to work to support their families.

Few realised that tourism is too wide and academic. Those who planned to work in large hotels should study hotel management and those who prefer restaurants could pick up culinary skills. Those who wish to work in a travel agency may obtain, within six months, a globally recognised International Air Transport Association (IATA) diploma, or a tourist guide licence.

Tourism education should not be confined to classrooms. It is best learned in the university of life by engaging with tourists, service providers and goods sellers. If cocooned within the campus, tourism students will be like the proverbial frog under the coconut shell.

Instead, they should go out and paint the town red as institutions of higher learning are spread all over the country and they could adopt the city, nearby towns or surrounding villages to develop local tourism.

Apart from gathering local history starting from the first settlers to all the landmarks and important events until today, tourism students must also interview those still involved in traditional businesses before they disappear from the scene.

They could easily be found operating in shophouses or even by the roadside. Some are well-known while others less so. But the fact that they have been around for decades proved they have something good to offer but may have been bypassed by many for various reasons.

Those in the food business have wider appeal to Malaysians as eating is our favourite pastime. Many people travel great distances to enjoy good food or buy takeaways such as fruits, cakes, biscuits and snacks. Those who produce such delicacies usually have interesting stories to tell.

If tourism students could compile a narrative history of these individuals, including their oral history, it would be very meaningful for visitors who could view them onsite using posters in Malay, English and Chinese, or through videos uploaded online.

One example is a recent Bernama report “Pak Mat's traditional coffee a speciality”. For 40 years, Pak Mat, 69, and his 65-year-old wife spent most of their time making traditional coffee powder in Kampung Belantik Dalam at Sik, Kedah.

He uses two types of coffee beans, namely Robusta and Liberica plus sugar to fry the beans without adding any other ingredient. What makes his coffee special is the beans are fried on an ancient wooden stove and ground using lesung hindik (wooden mortar with pestle).

He could only grind about five kilogrammes of coffee powder a day. His coffee, known as Kopi Pak Mat by locals or kopi hindik to outsiders are sold in transparent plastic bags without any fancy packaging or labelling.

It must be priceless to connoisseurs of local coffee but probably sold at such a low price that the elderly couple’s children are not keen to continue with the family business. But tourism can turn many traditional businesses into viable enterprises.

Most visitors are happy to pay good prices for speciality products and the place where they are made could be spruced up to welcome visitors. There are countless such attractions in our cities, towns and villages, but many remain hidden and unknown to outsiders.

Tourism students, numbering tens of thousands currently enrolled in our institutions of higher learning, could easily be deployed to uncover the many hidden gems spread all over the country by engaging with businesses operating from shops and cottage industries in homes.

Otherwise, why teach and study tourism if lecturers and students do nothing to promote it? We ought to remember and practise the adage: Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

And until smart learning is instituted and concrete actions are taken, tourism will remain at its infancy in this country. The good news is that the potential of local tourism is much bigger than the prevailing belief and is still waiting to be tapped.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.