From Angkor Wat to the Blue Mountains – with a little Swiss detour
From the Desk of Anne Held

The fabled temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia,  the fabulous Blue Mountains, Swiss hotel management – what connection could there be between all three of these totally different elements?

Let me introduce Fritz Gubler and explain a bit further. Well-known in the local Swiss community circles, Fritz and his wife Eliza have been living in Sydney since 1988. Fritz first traveled downunder just to visit his brother. He liked the country, the ambiance, the weather, the food, the people. He decided to stay.

Fritz, a graduate of the world-famous Hotel School in Lausanne, Switzerland, had been happily traveling and working his way around the world. After settling in Sydney, his first project was with a property developer, with the mission to operate their own hotel. Fritz found soon enough that is was extremely difficult to find the right and properly trained staff, especially on the higher levels. He returned back to Switzerland on a recruiting mission and to his amazement, found that over 400 Australians had been studying hotel management in his native country. The penny dropped. Together with his business partner Max Player, the first local hotel management school was founded, choosing a closed hotel in Leura in the Blue Mountains National Park as a perfect location for the campus. The Blue Mountains Hotel School BMS was officially opened in 1991 and has since then seen full house for the various courses. The BMS is an Associate  Institute of the International Hotel and Tourism Training Institute IHTTI  in Neuchatel and shares the Swiss philosophy of quality. BMS has the same curriculum and its graduates are awarded the IHTTI diploma in hotel management and enjoy the opportunity to transfer to IHTTI or any of the other associated institutes.  BMS students get placements all over the world after their successful studies.

Students from various countries live on campus, running the school as a hotel and taking over the role of both guest and hotel staff or managers, therefore getting a lot of hands-on experience. New wings have to be added, with the latest addition due to open for the school’s 15^th anniversary next year. Every semester also sees some Swiss students at the Leura institute, combining their training with an extended stay in Australia.

Due to the  high success of the first school, similar new projects were started as the Orion Group, with one school in New Plymouth, New Zealand, 2 tourism schools in Tianjin and Suzhou, China, and the Academy Lake Constance in Switzerland. The BMS lecturers regularly spend time in each destination to assist the local teachers and to supervise the operations.

In January, Fritz and Eliza Gubler went on an adventurous tour through Vietnam and Cambodia. Among other fascinating destinations, they also spent a few days in Siem Reap, the Cambodian town nearest to the fabulous old Angkor Wat temples. Contacts with the two existing local hotel schools in Siem Reap had been established by another Sydney-based Swiss involved in hotel association development projects in the Mekong.

One of the two hotel schools in Siem Reap is called Sala Bai. It is located in the middle of Siem Reap, a narrow white building accessed from a bumpy dirt road. The school runs a small hotel with some rooms available for guests, and their restaurant is recommended to every visitor to Siem Reap. The French chef combines traditional Khmer recipes with classic French cuisine and the airy restaurant is open for lunch during the week. The hotel and the restaurant provide the perfect training ground for the young students to practice what they learn at school.

The Sala Bai Hotel School, with some support from the French government and some private investors,  provides free training for young underprivileged Cambodians in hotel services. It admits some 80 students each year with priority given to students who were unable to attend a college or university for financial or socio-economic reasons.  Girls are given special consideration and thus constitute 70% of the enrolees. It is more difficult for local girls to find employment than for young men. The school is free of charge for all students and they also receive food and uniforms and even a bicycle if necessary. The training courses are conducted in Khmer by Cambodian teachers, with introductions in English and with French expatriates providing training assistance. The program includes courses in kitchen, housekeeping, restaurant service and front office. The program is complemented by a general education including classes in English and French, mathematics, history and civilization, geography, and Khmer principles. Two social workers follow students over the course of their studies and internship. They educate students on the realities of the tourism industry and help them find jobs upon graduation.

Cambodia with its friendly people and laid-back life style is enjoying a steady growth in tourism, especially noted in Siem Reap where hotels and guesthouses are just shooting out of the ground to accommodate all the visitors lured there by the magic of Angkor Wat. Tourist numbers increased by nearly 50% compared with last year. The local hotel industry is striving to improve on their standards of service and to make all visitors feel welcome and well looked after.  The need for well trained staff is big. On the other hand, many poor local families depend on the regular income of maybe just one family member to be able to survive. If the son or daughter is selected for training at Sala Bai, they will have great opportunities to find employment at one of the local hotels or restaurants, therefore helping to contribute for the family and the local infrastructure in general.

During his visit, Fritz Gubler could feel the genuine dedication of Sala Bai and its staff and found the whole project very impressive and worthwhile. He and his colleagues from the Orion group invited the French Sala Bai director and the chef for a presentation during one of their school conferences in Hong Kong. Feeling ready to share their experiences and their professional knowledge with the Cambodians, a special project was approved, under which a beneficial collaboration between the two schools will be established. As a first step, a BMS representative is identifying the current resources of Sala Bai, and analysing their immediate needs and requirements. During the school’s holidays in September, the plan is for the Khmer teachers to spend some time in either the Leura school, or the New Zealand establishment. There, they will assist the current lecturers in preparing and conducting classes for the international students. They will also get assistance and advice with the preparations of their own courses for the next semester. Through this exchange, not only will professional know-how be passed on, but new synergies and a better understanding of each other’s country, cultures and lifestyles will also be made possible, for both teachers and students in each country. It is also possible that scholarships for exceptionally bright Khmer students to come and study in Australia or New Zealand will be made available.

Fritz spends most of his time travelling to the different schools operated by the Orion group. Feeling at home in each of the various destinations, Fritz himself is fascinated with the combination of education and the hotel industry and is always keen to take up new opportunities. Besides the hotel schools, he is also Vice President of Swiss-Belhotel International, an international hotel management company based in Hong Kong looking after properties in Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Fritz’s latest project is the opening of a hotel in the old and very historic Quarantine Station at North Head - but that is another story.

 
Fritz Gubler

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