ITMC alumnus Wiebke Rettschlag writes about a very special fellowship which she has won. Wiebke will be travelling to the Middle East and the BRIC countries to learn first-hand from travel industry leaders around the world. We are very proud of her and are curious to hear about her experiences!

The corporate travel industry is one of the fastest growing tourism industries. Consequently, there is a high demand for continuous training and young professionals. This may be one of the reasons, why the Association of Corporate Travel Executives in co-orporation with leading industry partners, which act as sponsors, created the student fellowship for “Around the World in 80 Hours” (ATW80). The latter is a management training that focuses on the global corporate travel industry lasting 9-12 weeks. Each week the sponsored fellowship winners and attending industry professionals travel to another global business centre and “look behind the scenes” of global travel management. In the following, I would like to elaborate on the three reasons that convinced me to apply for the current student fellowship of “Around the World in 80 Hours”:

First, a top-notch sponsor at which you might kick off your career. BCD Travel, sponsor of the last and current fellowship, is one of the world’s leading corporate travel management companies with more than 11,000 employees and operations in over 90 countries. After ATW80 the fellowship winners complete further trainings at their sponsor and eventually start working with them.

Second, a breath-taking travel route: Dubai/Abu Dhabi, Bangalore, Beijing, Moscow and São Paulo. Not only that these places are indeed spread all over the world and are of great touristic appeal, the most fascinating is that these cities are part of the UAE and BRIC nations. Hence, they belong to the fastest growing markets worldwide and are expected to play even greater roles in future business travel. Experiencing those first-hand and understanding them better, will not only be a great proof for what I have learned during my ITMC studies, but will surely be handy when working in tomorrow’s corporate travel industry.

Third, the practical focus, look behind the scenes and 360°-perspective the programme provides you with. Once at a destination the participants visit major industry players such as hotels, airlines and ground handlers; attend meetings/congresses and participate in receptions with local industry VIP’s, hence have tremendous networking opportunities.

Looking back, the selection process was by far the toughest I have ever experienced. But it was all worth it – I am one of the three lucky winners of the upcoming ATW80 student fellowship sponsored by BCD Travel. At the moment I am busy arranging my last visas and start packing for most amazing business trip starting on May 17, 2013. I can hardly wait as this is a huge step closer to my dream career. If you wish to learn more about the “Around the World in 80 Hours” please visit the ACTE Global website!

ITMC alumnus Geoffrey Davis, currently employed as director of CheapTickets.sg in Singapore, is interviewed on Channel News Asia about the travel trends for Singaporeans.

Watch the entire interview on the Channel News Asia website.

6 out of 8 this year’s nominees for the Joop Jansen Award are ITMC students!

The Joop Jansen Award is presented every year to the most innovative thesis authors in the study programmes of Tourism Management, Leisure Management and International Tourism Management and Consultancy. Students are nominated by the institute.

Criteria such as topicality and societal relevance are determining. The two prizes each worth € 1,000 and the attendant certificates are named after the late Joop Jansen, former chairman and co-founder of NWIT. The winner is announced at a festive awards ceremony in December.

Place, date & time of the ceremony: Sibeliuslaan | 16 April | 15.00 hrs.

I was 17, when I first acquainted with Breda. Mom and dad drove me to the information day of the NHTV, an hour drive from my hometown. I was interested in the study tourism management, but even more about the idea that it was situated in Breda, far away but still close enough from home. When we drove through the city, along the single and the city park, I knew it: I liked this city. So I stayed, and never regretted it.

Breda is like a big village, but with the facilities of a city. At least, that is how I experienced it within these 4 years. It’s the heart of the province Brabant, which is known as the most friendly and hospitable province of the Netherlands. I can tell you, this is not a lie. Although I was only 17, inexperienced, immature, all by myself and totally not used to the city life when I moved, I felt home in this city from day 1 on. For the first time ever I didn’t had to drive for over 30 minutes to visit the H&M, and finally I could crawl back home after a good night out, instead of taking an expensive, nauseating cap. Although Breda is a city, it gives you the familiar feeling of a village, and that’s what I still like the most.

Of course I moved to Breda for my studies, but being a student is much more than reading books and spending time on school. And if I’m honest, I bed I spend more time in the city centre and in the pub than at the NHTV building. The city centre of Breda is cosy, with small caffees and restaurant that are always full with students. All of them try to be student’s favorite, with happy hours, offering discounts and organizing parties. Wherever you go, there is always a big chance you will see some familiar faces (not always favorable by the way). The nice thing is that you can just walk in and out the pub, so it mostly happens that you drink your first shot in De Kroeg, continues with a couple of beers in the Walkabout, goes on to the Millertime for a dance, continues dancing in the Nachtwacht and ends in the Floria for a durum dünner or a pizza shoarma. Then, you crawl back home, set your alarm at 8.00h and the next day you neatly attend the lecture of 8.30. Sure! Strong in the evening, strong in the morning. With some exceptions of course..

Pubs are nice, but Breda has more to offer. Even though it  is a small city, the list of events is huge. From dance events till cultural exhibitions and sport events, Breda has it all and has it often. Breda Barst, Breda Live, Breda dance tour, The Jazz festival, Breda Singelloop, Breda Carnaval, Graphic Design Festival and Breda Photo are just a small selection from the range. You must be really really boring if you say you are bored in Breda..

Now I am 21, and it is the first time I walk through the streets of Breda without being a student. Yes, I am graduated; my first job in this city is done. I don’t know what the next step will be and where it will happen, but what I do know is that I look back on these 4 years with a big fat smile on my face. It’s a book full of thousands of beautiful memories, hundreds of crazy pictures and friendships that are worth millions. Every year a different chapter, and who knows if more chapters will follow. For now, I will put my hands up for Breda, because I love this city. Breda, if I could hug you, I would do it.

The second year ITMC students are currently in Cambodia and Thailand for their fieldwork. ITMC student Danique Bolleboom reports from Cambodia.

Another story about the fieldwork. The previous week we have been to Siem Reap, a province in Cambodia. The program that the teachers had set was quite busy, but the excursions that we have done and the lectures were very interesting.

In Siem Reap we went to the famous temple Angkor Wat. The temple has an area of land covers around 210 hectares of land and it is surrounded by a moat which is 200 meters wide. After a day of temple visiting with a guide, we could choose what we wanted to see together with him. Our group decided that we wanted to see a small Cambodian village. It was very impressive to see the houses of those people and almost all the men were busy with working/ making souvenirs.

Another excursion that was very impressive to see was the Cambodian primary school. It was impressive to see the situation that those kids have for their education; so little material to use for their study and the buildings which were not that safe at all. But is is great to see that the children are happy that they can go to school at all.

Besides the excursions, we also had lectures. We had two lectures from companies that help the community. One lecture from the Life and Hope association was given by a monk. The lectures told us about how the organizations can help the community, for example by education and gaining work experience.

What I have learned during the five days in Cambodia is that life can be so different. Different in the sense of beliefs, expectations and the way they stand in life. Tomorrow we will go to our own study area and the real research will begin.

What can multinational tourism enterprises realistically do to make their business more sustainable? And is there a business case for sustainability? In this year’s edition of the 4^th year ITMC course Sustainability in Tourism – the Corporate Perspective,  students tackled those questions by working on a real life consultancy assignment for TUI Netherlands. In a period of 6 weeks, they got “ a reality check on sustainability”and experienced themselves how challenging it is for a multinational tourism enterprise to incorporate sustainability in daily operations. They zoomed in on “ buying green” (the procurement of accommodation) and “selling green” (communication & sales) .

The students approached business and sustainability in a conceptual and creative way, focusing on business model innovation. In teams, they first assessed the social responsibility strategy of TUI. Subsequently they built a business case for a new and creative idea with potential for TUI to further incorporate sustainability in their mainstream business practice. In regular meetings and workshops teams shared their findings and brainstormed about their ideas. During a special session with the TUI management in the TUI head office in The Hague, students presented and discussed their business cases.  Prior to this meeting, each team prepared a brief video summary of their idea, as preparation and teaser for this meeting:

TUI has indicated some of the ideas deserve serious consideration , others were tested and currently work in progress.  Students have evaluated the course positively, and particularly value working for a commissioner on a real-life case. The ITMC lecturers involved and TUI’s Sustainable Tourism department are enthusiastic about the results, and look forward to next year’s edition!

This article was originally posted on the NHTV insight website. Devora Fileva and Milena Krumova, the owners of UNIFY, are both ITMC alumni (cum laude graduates). Hence the repost on this ITMC weblog!

To be able to recruit a diversity of international students Marketing & Communication Office works with different agents or country representatives over the world. One of them is UNIFY.

UNIFY is an international student recruitment company for Dutch Universities which is active in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Poland, Greece, New Caledonia and Bulgaria. For NHTV-wide, UNIFY works in a very close cooperation with the Marketing & Communication Office of NHTV Breda which provides for a more sophisticated manner of recruitment. Furthermore UNIFY often recruits students for academies of NHTV only based on a customer-made assignment. UNIFY Bulgaria was established in 2011 by Mr. Frans de Jong (Logistics lecturer & professional at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences), Devora Fileva and Milena Krumova. The two Ladies have graduated from NHTV Breda in the ITMC program. In June 2011 each of them was awarded with a “cum laude” for their thesis and they were the first Bulgarian students who have ever achieved such a tremendous success!

On February 1st 2013 UNIFY opened their office in Sofia which has given a new horizon for its future development and it provides for a more direct relationship with candidate students and their parents. The USPs of UNIFY and the high satisfaction levels of students lie within the fact that the team of UNIFY are actually former members of the ITMC “ship” so former NHTV Breda graduates. Therefore, they are not only professionals in the tourism field but they also use a tailor-made approach for each candidate student and share their own experience of studying at NHTV Breda.

There are still three weeks left before we leave for Cambodia and Thailand to do our fieldwork.  For the fieldwork all groups have their own study area on Koh Samui or Koh Pha Ngan where we will conduct a destination analysis. A destination analysis looks at what is going on and enhances the overall understanding of a tourism destination. During the next three weeks we will be very busy researching our own study area and finding out what we want to know  and  how we can research it. To help us we could choose one of the following three topics:

1. The relationship between tourist drives/motivation and satisfaction: Which tourist groups are (dis)satisfied? What were their primary goals to visit this destination and how did they experience this place?
2. Destination representations, images and tourist experiences: What do visual representations, images and texts mean for the tourists visiting your fieldwork area? What types of photos are used in the travel brochures? Are tourists copying these images in their own photos or do they create other type of images?
3. Social Media & Mobile Technologies: What is the influence of social media (e.g. Tripadvisor, Facebook, Youtube) and new information technologies like mobile in the travel planning process in order to understand the behaviour of the chosen tourist segment?

The next step will be to conduct our research at the destination. But before we actually get started on the destination analysis itself, we will spend some time in Siem Reap (Cambodia) and Bangkok (Thailand) to visit tourism highlights, organizations and to learn from guest lecturers at the location. I will keep you updated!

About the author: Danique is a second year International Tourism Management & Consultancy (ITMC) student and blogger for this ITMC blog.

Lars Sang Mo Boom, E-Business Senior Marketeer ANWB was at NHTV today to  give a guest lecture to the 2nd year ITMC students as a part of their marketing course: Analysing Tourism Markets.

Mr. Boom talked about the increased technological focus of the travel industry. Social Media, local relevance, connectedness and mobile developments were at the core of his talk. During his interactive lecture, he challenged the students to think about and discuss the various topics covered. And to think about their future career in (or outside) a more technology driven and online based travel industry.

Mr Boom wrote a blogpost outlining the contents of his talk. You can read it on his blog. (it is in Dutch)

Today Theo de Haan has given the second presentation on the Fieldwork in Asia upcoming March/April. The students have been informed briefly on the program in Siem Reap, Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand. Furthermore, the students are now free to create multinational groups of 4/5 people with whom they are going to work during their time in Thailand. The islands Koh Samui and Koh phan gan will be their home for 2 weeks and they are given the freedom to choose their own research area. On the islands the groups will work together in nice weather (we hope) in a great atmosphere (we expect), and with inspiring people (we know). The fourth week of the fieldwork the students will spread their wings and scatter all over Thailand until we will be happily waiting for their sad faces at Koh Samui airport to leave for Amsterdam.