MU attends the world's leading travel trade show in Berlin

From the 9th to the 11th of March, MODUL Career and the Department of THM were joined by students from the BBA Program in Tourism and Hospitality Management and the MSc Program in International Tourism Management in attending the largest tourism fair in Europe, the ITB in Berlin.

Counting more than 180,000 visitors, among those 108,000 trade visitors, with over 10,000 exhibitors from 180 countries, ITB Berlin is the leading B2B-platform in the tourism industry. For all other private visitors, ITB Berlin is a wonderful possibility to discover the whole world within a few hours.

A special highlight was the participation of BBA Alumnus Fabienne Hamberg in the final round of the "Student Future Watch @ ITB Berlin" - an event where the five best bachelor and master theses were presented. Fabienne won the audience over with her presentation "Combining tradition and innovative business strategies in one bottle of wine - Revenue management in the Austrian wine industry''. The entire MODUL University Team congratulates Fabienne for having been chosen amongst the top five candidates!

Both faculty and students gained insights into the latest tourism research and (sometimes conflicting) views of industry representatives during the three-day ITB Convention. Each day had a different focus; ITB Future Day gazed into the crystal ball to identify the future traveler’s wants and needs, and ITB Hospitality Day looked back at recovery strategies after a harsh economic downturn and discussed recent changes in ownership structures that have put the industry in unrest. The term of the week at ITB Marketing and Distribution Day was “Social Media”, a topic that was also extensively discussed at the first public PhoCusWright@ITB conference. It became obvious that many tourism companies have not yet fully grasped the potential of social media marketing, and it is to be expected that the forthcoming years will bring groundbreaking changes and innovations in how tourism products are marketed. MU’s research focus on social marketing and eTourism guarantees that students and faculty will stay on top of these exciting developments. The ITB CSR Day, partly chaired by Dagmar Lund-Durlacher, touched on another red-hot topic for the industry. A record number of 20 tourism companies were awarded a CSR-certification by TourCert on this day.

For Hani El-Sharkawi, Head of MODUL Career, the ITB provided numerous opportunities to network with the industry. As a result, the list of internship and career opportunities has grown considerably. The lively atmosphere benefited not only the faculty and staff, but the attending students also managed to tie first knots with potential employers.

Another highlight aside from the fair and convention was the reception of the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) at the glamorous Kempinski Hotel Adlon, to which the CEO and THM Advisory Board Member Christopher Hartley invited MU students and staff. Amazingly enough, even after a full day at the ITB, there was still energy to hit the dancefloor until early in the morning. All participants again give thanks for this invitation.

The next ITB takes place from the 7th till 11th of March 2012 and MODUL University Vienna will certainly attend again!