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This article highlights how Emily Zehnder, Sarah Zehnder, and Leigh Thompson, the Canadian GTTP student winners in 2013, progressed their GTTP research work this year, 2014.

By Heather Brown, Teacher Sponsor, David Thompson Secondary School

The theme of the 2013 Student Research Competition sponsored by the GTTP focused on food and culinary tourism in the participant’s home country. Twenty-two high school students from 12 countries shared the results of their research at the student/teacher conference held in November 2013 in Monaco.

This educational initiative continued beyond the international conference with the work of the Canadian team.  Since their visit to Monaco, Emily Zehnder, Sarah Zehnder, and Leigh Thompson found inspiration in the work of their peers and decided to take action by re-designing and implementing some of their recommendations.

Earlier this year, the trio’s final report was used as a guide by a local Cultural Tourism committee.  In addition, one of their suggestions, a community kitchen, was simultaneously proposed by a recently formed local non-profit organization that was looking to create food-business incubator opportunities.

With their own action in mind, the team opted to propose two ideas to our town council.  The first request they made was that the recently hired event planner focus one community event on local food, which would include education, insight into food production, and of course delicious food for consumption.  The second suggestion, a taste trail, is one that the team hopes to implement.

In April 2014, as Grade 12 students, Emily, Leigh and Sarah were the only youth presenters at a provincial conference, “Food for Thought,” hosted by the Columbia Institute for locally elected officials in Vancouver, British Columbia. The young ladies took part in a workshop providing an opportunity for trustees and other elected leaders to discuss the influence the education system can have on engaging youth in finding solutions to community issues.

Food was the focus of the conference and included presenters such as Paula Daniels, who spoke about the importance of setting up networks for all members of the food system, Harold Steves, a pioneer farmer and elected official who is fighting to preserve farmland and Lenore Newman, a Canada Research Chair in Food Security.

Emily, Leigh and Sarah’s work was very well received and considered inspiring by many; in fact several of their ideas were tweeted by councillors and school trustees to their respective tourism committees.  Of course we made sure to take the time to eat delicious food and visit local farmers markets!

We look forward to their continued work and future accomplishments.  They are a team to watch!

GTTP Brazil organized a student conference on “The Future of the Tourism Professional” as part of the World Tourism Day celebrations on September 27th this year.

Mr. Vinicius Lages, Brazil’s Minister of Tourism, was the keynote speaker, inspiring a select group of students to search for knowledge relating tourism and innovation, and to think about serving their communities to help improved the quality of life where they live.

Global and Local Partner representatives shared their experiences as travel professionals, and outlined the path to a successful tourism career. GTTP Brazil’s chairman, Alberto Martins, emphasized that change in Brazil’s tourism industry can only happen when there is a change in education.

The student conference had 309 attendees and was held during the ABAV International Tourism Expo.

Alberto Martins (GTTP Brazil chairman),
Marcio Favilla (UNWTO executive director),
Vinicius Lages (Minister of Tourism) and
Antonio Azevedo (ABAV chairman, Brazilian Association of Travel Agents)

Luis Vargas (Travelport, a GTTP global partner) and Mariana Aldrigui (GTTP) sharing information on tourism careers

GTTP Brazil books printed and distributed by the
Ministry of Tourism from 2003 to 2006
(the second one is Passport to the World)

This week 22 student winners from 11 nations are presenting their findings on “Technology and Sustainability” in travel destinations

The Global Travel and Tourism Partnership (GTTP) is hosting its annual student/teacher conference at Le Meridien Nice in France from November 24 to November 28. Twenty-two high school students from 11 countries will share their finding on applying technology to enhance the visitor experience in their countries as well as the operations of the Travel and Tourism industry.

The students are winners of the 2014 Student Research Competition sponsored by the GTTP, a multi-country educational program to introduce young people to career opportunities in Travel and Tourism.

Student competition entrants research GTTP-assigned topics, which vary year to year. Winners at the national level present their findings or “case studies” at the annual conference.

“We structure these competitions to encourage the development of skills these young people will need in their careers and to focus them on issues and trends important to our industry,” said Michel Taride, Chair of the GTTP Advisory Board and Group President of Hertz International.

Nancy Needham, Executive Director of GTTP, said “Destinations want to continue being a place worth visiting. ‘Sustainability’ means people have employment, environments are protected, and visitors have a positive impact on the destination they are visiting. It all takes work.”

The GTTP, established in 1996, works in Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania and the United Kingdom. School systems provide teachers and classrooms. Some 2,500 local and international companies share their expertise with teachers and students and provide financial and in-kind support.

The international industry leaders supporting the GTTP are Amadeus, American Express, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Delta Air Lines, Enterprise Holdings, The Hertz Corporation, Hogg Robinson Group, KDS, Lufthansa, Starwood Hotel & Resorts, and Travelport. Their executives serve on GTTP’s Advisory Board.

From the GTTP to the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. The story of Yen Li

Crishner Lam is a 11-year veteran instructor in GTTP Hong Kong’s program, which serves some 15,500 students in 155 schools. Earlier this year he took a class to tour the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, where one of his former students, Yen Li now works.
Here is the story of Yen Li’s career since she was a GTTP student at the Lok Sin Tong Young Ko Hsiao Lin Secondary School*, as told by Crishner.

“In 2002, Yen and her fellow Travel &Tourism classmate Katie Chong presented an inspiring ‘heritage tourism’ case study named “Touring Walled Villages” to GTTP’s tourism leaders and student representatives. The study was presented during the GTTP International Conference held in Sofia Antipolis, near Cannes in southern France” said Crishner.

“Yen was deeply inspired by everyone she met at the meeting and by everything she experienced during the event. She became determined to follow her dream and make a career in Travel & Tourism” wrote Crishner.

“The following year” he added  “Yen graduated with a good grade in her T&T public examination and proceeded directly to study T&T at the Institute of Vocational Education – a renowned diploma program offered by the government-established Vocational Training Council. Here she met Chammy Lau, who was her teacher and who now is both the GTTP Hong Kong’s Director and a lecturer at the famous HKCC PolyU”.

The momentum, the passion and the international exposure that the GTTP had brought to Yen led to her being chosen for the highly sought-after ‘Disney Scholarship’ to Walt Disney World in Florida for one entire year.

“At Disney World,” wrote Crishner “she strove, she learned, she developed herself all-round, she worked very hard, but also used her time-off days to experience more through travelling to the Caribbean and within the USA.”

“After returning to Hong Kong – Crishner continued – Yen joined the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel and has moved ahead quite successfully in her career. She was promoted to ‘representative host’ position, focusing on generating high quality service to the resort’s VIPs. Her proactive character made her one of those who create key service elements and also train the resort staff members to run the famous ‘Disney’s Hospitality in Practice’ day training program for students at secondary and post-secondary levels”.

“To create a happy surprise, she decided to conduct the day training program herself when I took my class to the Disneyland Hotel” told Crishner. “It was a ‘magic moment’ for me, her former teacher, as well as for my students.”

“GTTP’s student conference changed my life… and you should always believe in your career dream… it can come true!” Yen told the students while, as they say in Hong Kong, “a ‘bit of smoke’ got in her eyes”.

*Yen Li studied Travel & Tourism at Lok Sin Tong Young Ko Hsiao Lin Secondary School

Have you ever wondered what happens when a homegrown village festival becomes swamped by tens of thousands of visitors? How do the villagers feel about it?

This is not an idle question. Festivals have become big business around the world, and some overwhelm their host communities.

GTTP Hong Kong’s Director, Chammy Y.L. Lau from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in collaboration with Yiping Li (University of Hong Kong), has published the results of their research into one example of this topic. The investigation focused on a traditional festival held on Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau Island.

Every year, usually in late April or early May, three 60-foot towers covered in steamed buns become one of Hong Kong’s signature visual images. These are one of the core parts of a weeklong festival held on the island.

At the core of the Festival is a tradition of thanksgiving and prayers for protection started by a tiny fishing community in the aftermath of an 18th century epidemic. Year after year, the festival evolved to include other elements of the Chinese traditional culture, and today the festival attracts tens of thousands of visitors during that one week.

As part of the GTTP’s Student Research Competition on “Festival and Tourism”, the GTTP students from Hong Kong examined the 2011 edition of the Cheung Chau Festival. They looked at all of Hong Kong’s many festivals, with a specific focus on their financial benefits and developed a comprehensive report that is now published on the GTTP website.

Chammy and her colleague took the research a step further, and developed an in-depth investigation on what the festival means to the villagers in terms of religion, heritage, social bonding.

In a nutshell, the outcome of the research is that the villagers are intensely proud of what the Festival has become. The money that flows in is clearly one of the main reasons why,  but the symbolic elements are still there. During the Festival, residents ritually purify themselves, clean the streets before the festivities begin, and serve no meat – even the local McDonald’s becomes vegetarian. The sense of community that organizing and managing the Festival brings is definitely one of the main drivers for the villagers of the Cheung Chau Island.

The long answer to Chammy’s research question is clearly longer and delivers a more insightful view on the Festival and its value to the inhabitants of the Island, and is available  on the prestigious Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change.
Congratulations to Professor Chammy Y.L. Lau, GTTP Hong Kong Director: this is her first research paper in an internationally refereed academic journal!