The Higher Education Review

As the land of diverse cultures and scenic beauty, India has always been a prime destination of tourism for overseas explorers and wanderlusts who are treated in our country diligently by the virtue of our belief in `Vausudhaiva Kutmbakam'. Enriching our tourism and hospitality segment with dynamic talents who are well-equipped to handle complicated situations and perform under pressure, the Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (ITHM) has emerged as the trailblazing platform of the present times. A state-funded government. institute, Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (ITHM) was started in 1984 as a part of Agra University, which was later changed to Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University in 1996. To provide skilled manpower to the stakeholders of the tourism and hospitality sector, ITHM has been addressing the existing adversities in society by providing job opportunities to several students in the thriving segments of the tourism and hospitality industry.

Though ITHM started its journey from just a diploma, the masters' degree was introduced in ITHM in 1992, and ever since the institution remained an exclusive podium to provide trained manpower to the growing demands of hotels and travel agencies of Agra. With time, the Universi-ty started different courses on tourism, and cur-rently, it is offering a Ph.D. in Tourism, MBA in Travel and Tourism Management, postgraduate diploma in hotel and tourism management, BBA in hospitality management, B.A. in Travel and Tourism Management.

"Our city Agra has three World Heritage Sites, which are Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri and together they form a golden triangle, driving the overall tourism and hospitality segment of Agra. Since this particular triangle within Agra envisages a lot of foreign tourists, we require man-power of international standard.

To satisfy the pres-ent demand of catering world-class services to our overseas guests, we have MOUs with Howard Uni-versity, USA and a number of reputed international bodies like the International Academy of business, which gives the required exposure to our students at a global level.

We provide them job opportunities not only within the country, but out of the country as well. Many of our students are well placed in different parts of the world like the USA and Dubai, Canada, Germany, and Spain. To ensure that our students remain aligned with the tourism and hospitality at a global level, we are also publishing an internation-al journal on tourism and hospitality," shares Prof. Lavkush Mishra, Director, Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (ITHM).

"Being situated in Agra, ITHM provides an excellent industry exposure to its students, both national and international"

Providing an Excellent Industry Exposure
Equipped with world-class infrastructure, ITHM offers its students with smart classrooms along with streaming tools, world-class tracking, lab testing, criminology lab, housekeeping lab, front office lab, and so on. The institution also offers exclusively industry-specific courses along with a 100 percent placement guarantee, making it a prominent insti-tute catering to the tourism and hotel management segment, not only in Agra but all over India. With numerous alumni well-placed in numerous national and international conglomerates, ITHM has been successful in luring the attention of many blossoming talents in the Tourism and Hotel Management segment. Apart from working with global brands such as ITC, Oberoi, Taj Group, MakeMyTrip, and so on, most of the students of ITHM are functioning in the academia also, and some of them are associated with Uttarakhand Open University, North-eastern Hill University, Shillong, and so on.

"Being situated in Agra, ITHM provides an excellent industry exposure to its student both in terms of national and international. Sharing its border with Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and UP, Agra is full of

brimming opportunities for the students who want to experience and hone their skills to emerge as competent professionals. We also encourage our students to participate in international functions such as `Taj Mahotsav', which enables them to experience exclusive and superlative phenomena of this segment at a closer level," avers Prof. Lavkush Mishra.

Apart from academic development, ITHM en-sures the overall personality development of the students by encouraging them to explore their hid-den talents. The e-paryatan Patrika of ITHM has emerged as an innovative platform for students who are interested in pursuing their career in tourism journalism. Apart from that, the institution also has a photography club, sports club, and green club in which environmental issues are taken care of, which promotes the students to showcase their talents at national level and international level platforms, after accessing their caliber. "In the upcoming days, we are planning to introduce short-term certification cours-es of 3-6 months duration. Beneficial for the students who are not willing to continue long-term education, these skill development programs will enable them to acquire industry-specific courses in a short-span. With a notion to make our city tourist-friendly, we also provide behavior training to the service provid-ers, specifically to the police, security professionals, or CISFs who are deployed at the Taj Mahal. There is a significant difference between tourists and ter-rorists. Apart from skills relevant to security, these professionals need to know how to behave with the tourists because India is a tourist-friendly country and the integrity of our country depends on it," con-cludes Prof. Lavkush Mishra.

Prof. Lavkush Mishra, Director, Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (ITHM)
As the Director of Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (ITHM), Prof. Lavkush Mishra is pragmatically engaged in molding prolific future professionals of Tourism and Hospitality segment. Under his leadership and guidance, ITHM is gradually emerging as one of the most coveted educational institutions of India in the field of tourism and hotel management.