Around the world at the ITB Berlin

As part of the extracurricular learning experiences offered at Modul Unviersity, the Career Centre organizes an annual visit to the ITB Berlin, the world's largest tourism trade fair. Ten Bachelor and Master students headed to the German capital for the event featuring 10,000 exhibitors from more than 180 countries representing hotels, tourist boards, tour operators, system providers, airlines and car rental companies.

The group attended a variety of presentations on topics such as Independent Hotels, Event Experience Design, European Air Travel and the importance of AirBerlin, Young Hotelier Summit & Dorchester Collection, and Next Generation Hotel Marketing. In addition they were given tours by the Austria National Tourist Office and the Danube Competence Center in order to gain better insight behind the scenes as to what it takes to have a booth at the largest tourism and trade fair in the world.

The action didn’t end with the end when the fair closed up for the day, the students were invited to the company launch party of L.I.K.E Hospitality Consulting by CEO Fritz Dickamp, who was a guest speaker at MU’s  Latest Trends and Innovations in Tourism lecture series. This gave them the occasion to network with members of the tourism industry and students of the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, who were in Berlin to present the Young Hotelier Summit at the ITB.

During the fair they had the chance to meet and greet fellow students and alumni representing a variety of tourism-based companies: alumni Cem Meric - Sales & Marketing - Jacaranda Hotels & Resorts, Christoph Berg – Publisher Sales Manager DACH – Adform - Cologne, Germany, Amarindra Sandhu – Front Office Agent - Grand Hotel - Vienna, Austria, and current students Moritz Christian – Head of Sales & Marketing – Tripwolf – Vienna, Austria and Bakabote (Micke) Chowadee - Bandara Group - Bangkok, Thailand.

The fair was a great opportunity to “explore the world” in three days and to get to know the tourism market better. Some of the students saw the networking potential of the international and gave out their CV in order to find job opportunities after graduation.

It was an informative and potentially career-making visit for our students – and they got the chance to discover the beauty of the Berlin and a taste of the local gastronomy!