171 Letter from Hera Oktadiana
Dear tourism women scholars and future leaders,
I am very honored to be invited to contribute to the Women’s Voices in Tourism book. I began my academic journey in 2000, starting as a program coordinator in Trisakti School of Tourism Jakarta, then advancing to consultant for a consulting firm in hotel training, until appointed head of the hotel program in Bunda Mulia Hospitality and Tourism Institute, Deputy Manager of Trisakti’s International Program in Hotel and Tourism Management, Head of Hotel Management BINUS (Bina Nusantara) University, and Head of School Hospitality and Tourism Management BINUS International.
How I ended up learning tourism and hospitality
When I was in high school, I did not have any intention to have a career in tourism and hospitality. I wanted to become an architect or an interior designer. I like drawing and design. I had won various drawing and painting competitions. But upon returning to my home country Indonesia from the one-year AFS Intercultural/Student Exchange Program (originally American Field Service) in the United States (1992-1993), the university that I was interested in had closed its admission. My father recommended me to study hotel management in one of the top tourism institutions in Indonesia, Trisakti School of Tourism. He said I could apply to an architecture course in the following year if I did not like the hospitality course. To my surprise, I enjoyed it. I received a scholarship from my university and got selected to do an internship as well as studying at Leeuwarden Hotel Management School (now Stenden University) the Netherlands for one year (1996-1997). Later in 2004, I obtained another scholarship to study MBA in Multimedia University Malaysia and Master of Management in Bunda Mulia University where I worked as the head of hotel division.
Travel and hotel realm is not new to me. I have been travelling since I was little. My parents took me to various tourism destinations around Indonesia. We often stayed in the four- and five-star hotels. My father was a hotelier. He worked in a national-chain hotel group which also managed the first hotel in Indonesia. He obtained a diploma in hotel management from Glion Institute of Higher Education Switzerland in the 1970s. From him I learnt about hospitality and tourism.
Becoming the head of tourism and hospitality departments
Before I decided to have a career in academia, I worked in Borobudur Intercontinental Hotel Jakarta, a coffee company in Jakarta, and an embassy in Tokyo, Japan. During my tenure in Indonesian universities, I had established three hospitality and tourism programs and assisted my alma mater Trisakti in the opening of hotel international program with the International Management Institute (IMI) Switzerland.
Becoming the head of department at 29 years of age was quite challenging, especially as I had to start from scratch – from planning to implementing the program. I had to deal with many issues. They i