Multi-million pound "hotel school" planned (From Western Telegraph)

Multi-million pound "hotel school" planned

5:00pm Sunday 27th January 2013 in County News

Plans for the first Hotel School in Wales were announced in Tenby on Wednesday. The multi-million pound project, offering degrees in hospitality, will train around 90 students at a time.

It is planned to be based in the resort’s Fourcroft Hotel, which will provide first-rate services to guests at the same time as training the students in every aspect of hotel management.

The course has been created by Cardiff Metropolitan University and is designed to turn out jobready graduates after the twoyear, highly intensive course.

The Fourcroft Hotel has been owned by the Osborne family for over 60 years, and managing director Chris Osborne said: “The Hotel School will be a wonderful asset for the town.

“Not only will it provide the hospitality and tourism industry with new degree level management graduates with ‘hands-on’ learning, but it also sets up Tenby as a student town, with all the additional benefits of year-round economic gain."

Cardiff Met's Associate Dean (Research), Professor Eleri Jones, added: "We are really excited about designing this course."

The plan is for the Hotel School to open its doors in autumn 2015, and the project has been welcomed by MP Simon Hart. ‘This is a great idea for Tenby and a winner in every way,” he commented.

Added Assembly Member Angela Burns: “This is the economic and skills boost which the tourism industry in west Wales really needs.”

The idea for the Hotel School comes from Tenby Development Trust, which has been set up as a Social Enterprise Limited Company with not-for-privateprofit objectives aimed at helping Tenby’s regeneration.

Said board member Jeremy Bowen-Rees: “Our coast is regarded as being world class, and yet the town has suffered over the last decade from lack of investment, both in money and ideas.”

He explained that the Trust wanted to start up a venture in Tenby that would provide year-round employment and boost the local economy, and the Hotel School would achieve this, as well as putting the town on the culinary and academic map.