Ray Freeman - MA Tourism Management
Ray Freeman - MA Tourism Management
Ray Freeman is a jack of all trades when it comes to the tourism sector.
The MA in Tourism Management alumnus' knowledge of the industry is rooted in adventure. With time logged as a white water rafting guide, ski instructor, manufacturer of adventure tourism equipment, outfitter, and following his own passion for activities such as mountain biking he has seen the inner workings of the growing industry.
Between adventure postings, he worked as a paramedic and with an Internet startup company in the late 1990s which grew to span three continents. His business acumen came through microbrewery equipment manufacturing and sales, taking him to more than a dozen countries on sales and project management trips.
"Through all of this I was always striving to learn more and I knew that if I wanted to be able to offer more I would have to advance my education," he says.
That understanding eventually lead him to Royal Roads, where he debated between the MBA program and MA Tourism Management program. The latter was tailored to his experience and where he wanted to go, he says.
"The advantage of the tourism program was the knowledge development potential was really unique," Freeman says. "The learning environment has really allowed me to achieve a primary goal, which is to carve out a distinct knowledge set at the strategic level in the tourism industry."
Freeman graduated in October 2011, but before he had finished the program he was reaping the rewards of his decision early in his studies.
"(While doing the program) I engaged in a consulting project with the BC Ministry of Tourism and was subsequently recruited to Tourism Vancouver Island as Industry Services Manager. It was amazing how the residencies fostered the skills and insights necessary to effectively hit the ground running, particularly in environments with disparate stakeholder interests."
Freeman landed his next position as a consultant in the continuing studies department of a B.C. university. He recruited partner organizations, including Community Futures, Tourism Vancouver Island and WorldHost Training Services to assist in developing and successfully delivering a blended program of essential skills training for front-line employees in the tourism and hospitality industry.
By the time Freeman began working on his graduate paper, he had honed in on the ideal subject matter. Using mountain biking as the vehicle (no pun intended, he says) he researched community tourism development and critical success factors to identify how stakeholders could leverage partnerships and maximize their funding and efforts for sustainable results.
"Through the research process, I have developed a conceptual framework and development approach which I am able to apply in the field. I initially thought, 'Oh I will do my graduate paper and it will be kind of interesting and put on a shelf some place, like many people do.' What I didn't expect is I have been receiving very strong interest and specific consulting engagements out of that," he says. "There are now initiatives going on across B.C. and in other jurisdictions, including over-seas (using this model) happening much more quickly than I had anticipated."
With his degree in hand, Freeman has joined the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management as an associate faculty member.
"The opportunity to instruct at Royal Roads is something I never really expected, but I am quite excited about it. It's a whole new learning curve!" he says. "Between instructing and community tourism development projects, I am busier than I expected this soon after graduating from Royal Roads University."
