Question: Heidi speaks of "being the expert". Choosing an area of tourism that interests you, at what point do you become an expert on that area? What credentials and/or collective information is needed to consider someone an expert?
According to Heidi, to be an expert, it is very important to find one’s niche. This will help a person to narrow the focus. Doing too many things or having too broad a focus will not help in becoming an expert. Other people can give the tools, but it depends on you to find the path. She says that being an expert does not happen overnight. However, one should start believing that one is an expert and start telling everybody that one is an expert. A very important part of being an expert is to never stop learning. Some fields, such as fields involving technology, are very transient and being an expert in them is very difficult. Any expert today in those fields will not be an expert tomorrow. I am interested in Food and Beverages sector of the tourism, so according to her, I can pick up a lot of knowledge and contacts by attending tourism conferences. Another way to become knowledgeable is by finding networks on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, where the members can be not only from the industry but just regular tourists. It will also help me if one can make connections in tourism circuit, get to know people, and have contacts in the state tourism offices. Barr agrees with Heidi’s assessment that to be an expert one has to focus on one thing rather than multiple things. He also says that it is very important to keep learning by reading books and gaining experience in the field. This can be achieved by interacting with people in the same field. He also adds that to be an expert one has to start small, focus on the process rather than the results, and learn from the mistakes.
References
Barr, C. (2011, November 8). 5 simple principles for becoming an expert. Retrieved from Zenhabits.net: http://zenhabits.net/expert/
Management, C. S. (Producer), & Kerr-Schlaefer, H. (Director). (2014). Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer, Owner, HeidiTown [Motion Picture].
