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Reflective Summary on Personal Learning Experience and Its Impact on Leadership Assessment Answer

Assessment Instructions

You are required to write 1500 words Reflective Summary

 For an optimum outcome, the reflective summary should be started at the beginning of week 1, and continued throughout at least weekly. The key questions that you should ask yourself are: 

 How have your learning experiences and the major knowledge and skills you have developed during this subject affected you?

  How will this impact on your practice as a leader? 

 ‘Critical reflection’ requires you to take this one step further; to analyse, reconsider and question your learning experiences and relate these experiences to your previous knowledge, skills and experiences to gain deeper and broader understandings, and from there to make changes (improvements) in your future personal development as a leader in tourism and hospitality industries. In preparing this summary, you will need to write a detailed critical reflection of the following aspects: 

• Your view of destination and visitor management practices before entering MBA653 

• Your goal on entering MBA653 in relation to the subject matter.

• Your reflection on what you have learnt about destination and visitor management during MBA653 

• The areas of destination and visitor management that have interested you the most and why 

• Make proposals on how you will develop yourself further in your professional career 

• Other aspects you have reflected on that are not included above Additionally; you are required to create a concept map of your personal development as a summative ending to your critical reflection. This map should be included as an appendix at the end of your reflective summary. 

Answer

Perspective of practices of destination and visitor management before joining MBA653

The field of visitor management and destination management has always been very interesting for me. My interested always been directed towards tourism and hospitality sector and visitor management has been my core of focus. Before entering MBA653, I had the perception that visitor management and destination management are similar practices. I also had limited knowledge about the strategic planning included in destination management. It must be added that I had developed knowledge about the new demands of tourist, driven by their features of being knowledgeable and seeking quality and participation. Before entering MBA653, I had participated in workshop in learning module that help me to understand the complexity of visitor experience and expectations that makes visitor management effectively to be complicated. From my previous participation in workshops I had developed knowledge of visitor interpretation and its importance in making the visitors realise the significance of a site and understand its context. 

Goal for entering MBA653 related to destination management and visitor management

My goal after entering MBA653 has been driven by the need for understanding different models and Framework that can help in understanding the destination management and visitor management more effectively. My goal has been to develop my knowledge about tourism system and the rule of visitor management and destination management in determining the sustainability of destinations. My goal has also been to understand the local circumstances that determine destination marketing and the product development in destination management. It was also my aim to understand the significance of virtual reality in the present scenario and its impact on visitors in destinations. Also wanted to develop my understanding of green economy and political factors determine in the management of visitors at destinations. Most of my previous knowledge had been based on practical examples and participation in workshops however I aimed at developing my theoretical knowledge related to visitor management and destination management so that it can be applied for better insights in future. It was also intriguing to understand the principles engaged in the interpretation of the visitors for better visitor management. This has also been one of the goals for entering MBA653.

Reflection on learning and relevance to practices of leadership

The engagement in the MBA653 has been very informative and has led to the development of my knowledge and necessary skills in the area of destination management and visitor management. At first it must be noted that I had learnt about the difference between destination management and visitor management which prior to this study had not been well developed. I have learnt the skill of classification of tourists based on their need for recreation and leisure or business travel. This has also help to develop my knowledge about the needs of the different tourist that can help at my skill at visitor management in future. My knowledge regarding destination management has also been developed. It has been realised that there is need for undertaking strategic approach such as joined up management. I have realised that are the leader in destination management, there is need for identification of gaps in management and effective training (Morrison, A. 2018). The leader also requires formulating an integrated and Holistic plan for controlling change processes. As a leader I would also required developing a long term perspective for understanding sustainability in the strategic planning for destination management. In the area of destination management, my knowledge as a leader had been developed about importance of innovation and creativity. I have realised the need for engaging in community support for enhancement of scope as a leader. For being a successful leader I have understood that there is need for being a facilitator or partner for destination management activities. For being a facilitator, a leader is required to give opinion for proposed development and also used business performance statistics for well-informed product development in destination management (Su and Swanson, 2017). It has also been learnt through the workshops and week learning that as a leader I can also assume the role of a partner by co investing engaged activities. My knowledge has been enhanced regarding the Strategies for product development and I have learnt that it is important to engage in diversification and market development specifically for succeeding in new markets. In terms of leadership quality it has been learnt that cooperation as a skill is the essence for managing activities in destination and visitor management (Spenceley et al. 2018). It is important for a leader to possess the skill to merge the ideas and innovation along with the available resources. Hence as a leader it is very important for me that when I function in visitor management and destination management I need to be proficient at managing resources by being innovative. 

My practices as a leader had been developed with the development of my knowledge about collaborative networks and need for close communication with Tourists and tourism operators. My knowledge has also been enhanced regarding the techniques for managing expectations of the visitors for effective visitor management. It has been learnt that it is important to offer several services and products to visitors to choose from and provide the visitors methods for the assessment of the quality of the service. It was important to learn that as a leader it is very important to provide accessibility to the tourists along with giving those provisions for convenience for management of the experiences (Hristov and Zehrer, 2019). My practice as a leader in the future had also been influenced by the knowledge about first hand participatory learning and the skill of stimulating change in the behaviour and attitude of the visitors. As a leader it is also important to have the skill of persuasion that includes low level of authority and the power to compel behavioral change in visitors in visitor management skills. It is also important for the practice of a leader to understand the use of technology and internet in understanding the needs of the customers and influence their behaviour (Martin and Martin, 2017). For instance, it is important for leaders to understand the use of cloud services and its integration in the activities for visitor management.

Areas of interest in destination and visitor management and its reason

The areas of study that has been most interesting industrialization and visitor management has been knowledge of tourist classification and understanding of strategic planning framework. This has been important for the development of my basic insight in visitor and destination management. Other interesting areas have been the understanding of the Tourism Area Life Cycle model. It was also interesting to know about the different components in destination management such as market planning, market research, market segmentation, promotion and communication and marketing evaluation. It was intriguing for understanding the basics of the destination management that was not possible to learn in practical workshops. It was also interesting to know about the seven drivers of economic growth that impacts the scope of tourism in any industry. The understanding of the Experience Theory has been ready interesting for me to gain effective insight into the expectations of the visitors. It was interesting to know that consumers look for symbolism and effective memories for developing long lasting experience. The concept of indicators and the standards had also been very interesting as part of the criteria for the management of the quality services in destination and visitor management. Other interesting areas had been the understanding of the concept of physical interpretation and the six principles engaged in interpretation practice in visitor management. It was also fascinating to know about the different factors that influence the visitors to choose a destination. This is an important understanding that would be significant for gaining insight into the psychological and behavioral approach of visitors towards any destination.

Proposal for development of professional career in future

For the development of my professional career in the future in the area of destination and visitor management, I would engage in the study of DestinationNEXT future map. This would be important for understanding the transformative steps to be undertaken for facing the new challenges in the travel and tourism industry. Future career I would also undertake steps for developing my communication skills and skills at negotiation that is very important for managing visitors in visitor management field. It was also be necessary for future career to develop knowledge and skill at using mobile computing, GPS technology, and cloud technology, for influencing the process of decision making of the tourist and also to be more competitive in approach (Milovanović and Gligorijević, 2017). It would be important for adopting a Smart approach towards my profession in the area of visitor and destination management. The future of destination and visitor management is in the use of ICT and smart tourism. Technological skills would be most needed for development of proficiency in my career as a professional for both destination management and visitor management in the tourism sector. Hence for future profession, soft and hard skills need to be developed for excelling in tourism sector operations. 

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