UNO Professor Speaks at U.S. Department of Commerce
A University of New Orleans faculty member recently spoke at the U.S. Department of Commerce about tourism and hospitality.
Hospitality, Restaurant and Tourism Associate Professor Bridget Bordelon spoke to a delegation of 25 tourism professionals from Eurasia visiting the U.S. to learn more about the tourism and hospitality industry. The delegation was part of the U.S Commerce Department's Special American Business Internship Training program (SABIT), which targets economic decision makers from the former Soviet Union and other regions.
New Orleans and Branson, Mo., were the only two cities chosen for the 2013 SABIT program, Bordelon said. She talked to the delegation about her research on destination development, tourism policy and planning in New Orleans, as well as the curriculum of the Lester E. Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Administration at UNO.
The use of a translator allowed for a lively question-and-answer session with the group, said Bordelon, who described the meeting as "an extremely successful cross-cultural exchange, opening the door for future learning opportunities."
The school of HRT in UNO's College of Business Administration has the largest undergraduate program in hospitality and tourism in the state and the only master's program in hospitality and tourism in the nation with a 100 percent job placement rate, a rate the school has astonishingly sustained for nine years.
The HRT master's program is the first and only master's program in the state, while the University's Hospitality Research Center is the first and only one of its kind in the state.
