“My name is Joyce Krielen and I am a lecturer within the Attractions & Theme Parks Management track. I lecture and coach in project 5, which is a Revenue Management & Finance course in which students are making investment choices to increase the profitability of a business. Besides this, I am coordinating year 3 of Attractions & Theme Parks Management and supervise placements and graduating students. I work at the bachelor and master tracks within Tourism. Also, I am teaching at the Tourism academy all kinds of finance and operational courses.
I started working at the NHTV in May 2012 after working for Deloitte as a consultant. I found out after several years that within a consultancy firm you are looking for the mistakes in businesses, trying to get a new assignment. In teaching we try to look at the strong points of people and help students to become valuable people / employees. It is very fulfilling to see when a difficult topic becomes more clear to students and they can even apply theory to a real case.
The reason I have joined the ATPM team was because there was an opportunity to create a new course from scratch. We spent a lot of hours in brainstorming what would be a interesting project. What is also very appealing to Attractions & Theme Parks Management, is that we have a close connection with the attraction and theme parks industry. This close connection with the industry is very special, as it helps the students a lot since the ‘problem’ they are working on is real.
The course Revenue Management & Finance is set up together with the industry. We had several meetings with the commissioner, trying to find out what they needed. We have visited the commissioner for a weekend to get a good insight in the business and the final presentations were attended by the commissioner.
My view on the ATPM students is that they have a very valuable addendum to their bachelor certificate. The industry has worked with us and knows the strengths of our students. The students worked in different settings in different parks during the track and have had great insights in so many businesses that they can apply in the future.
What will happen to the attractions and theme parks industry in the future? Who knows! I am very interested to see what will happen! We will stay on top of any changes and adjust our program to all developments, because we have a strong link with the business. Be critical, interested and open minded!”
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