TP's hospitality star

TP ALUMNUS Tang Xiangru is a young lady who exemplifies how hard work and passion is a sure formula for success. At the tender age of 26, she has risen to become the director of revenue management at a leading hotel in China.

Xiangru graduated from TP in 2003 with a diploma in Tourism Management with Merit, topping her cohort. She then furthered her studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Travel Industry Management with Highest Honours and Minor in Economics in 2006. Not surprisingly, she finished her three years there with a perfect GPA score.

She then started her career with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc as a revenue management trainee at Sheraton Kauai Resort in Hawai‘i. The one-year training equipped her with strong revenue management skills. Through assisting her director in managing the reservations department she also developed her leadership skills.

Eyes set on the rapidly growing Asian market, Xiangru quickly readied herself for her next assignment as a revenue manager at the newly-opened Sheraton Shenzhen Futian Hotel in China. She settled well into her new position and saw the hotel outperforming its competitors consistently. In just six months, Xiangru was promoted to her current position.

Xiangru credits her interest in marketing and strategic planning to her three internship experiences. The first was during her final year in TP, where she spent a semester in the sales and marketing as well as reservations departments at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. The seven-month experience strengthened her customer service skills as well as exposed her to developing marketing plans.

Following that, in the course of her academic journey, she also served internships at the Singapore Tourism Board and at the Hawai’i Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Mrs Goh-Choi Hoi San, course manager of the Hospitality& Tourism Management course at TP, remembers Xiangru fondly: “I was impressed with her level of maturity and leadership qualities; how all her peers would turn to her for consultation and how respected she was as a student. I am proud that she is doing so well in her career and that she is flying the TP flag high.”