Now. Time to be outstanding!

In this blog student Albina Abilkair takes you to the EURHODIP conference!  

‘’ At the moment I am an exchange student under the Erasmus program of the autumn semester. I am from Kazakhstan. On November 9-13, I participated in the annual international 29th student conference “EURHODIP” which was held in Portugal in the city of Évora. The “EURHODIP” competitions is an event within the annual conference that tests the skills and competences of students from EURHODIP schools in five areas of training: Hotel Management, F&B Management, Innovation and Enterpreneurship, Tourism Management and Marketing Management. This conference was attended by students from 35 countries and more than 140 hotel and tourism schools, including the best known in Europe. There were also delegations from all over Europe and owners of international hotel chains and tourist organizations. The annual conference consisted of three round tables:  

1. How to be outstanding today?  
2. How to retain talent? 
3. Sustainability as DNA

The conference organized under the theme “Now. Time to be outstanding!” guided participants to reflect on the future of hospitality, that the world today demands people who understand the art of making others feel welcome, people who have both leadership as well as service talents. 

The Student Competition

At this student competition, I participated in the direction of tourism management. It consisted of two stages: 1st Stage – Individual Tourism Management Quiz, 2nd Stage – Individual Challenge (Presentation of the city of Évora). This competition helped me to reveal my knowledge in the field of tourism, namely in theoretical areas (tourist systems, structure of tourist attractions, types of tourism) and tourism information topics, as well as their ability to adapt to situations that require immediate resolution. As for me, the second stage of the competition is very exciting. During this stage, I saw how other foreign students work and I wanted to make an unusual presentation. I have always experienced difficulties in creating an itinerary around , but this time I gathered all my strength and showed what I am capable of. In my opinion, this conference helped to show the level of service and tourism for foreign guests.  

The city of Évora was revealed to me on the positive side, as: architectural monuments, friendly people, excellent food, also amazing wine according to other guests. Everything was on the highest level from the opening of the ceremony to the closing. 

Take aways 

I would say that that this experience that I received during the competition will be useful to me for work at the lab. I heard the very informative speeches of the Marta Sotto-Mayor (best professional trainer career in Europe 2021), Alexandra Outeiro (People Specialist at ABC Sustainability Luxury Hospitality). On the one hand, international experience gave me the opportunity to enrich my skills, experience a different culture and, ultimately, make comparisons. On the other hand, this same project, and the feeling of sharing, strengthens ties and solidifies the European project in times that want, more than ever, European cohesion in its principles and values. I want to point out that Eurhodip is an excellent source for information on how education programs are changing in order to meet the needs of the new global economy, general education reform, student learning outcomes assessment, diversity in education, and global issues in education.  

The First Prize 

Finally, I won the first place prize thanks to hard work. I want to use this moment to express my gratitude to my university Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages and Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab Rotterdam for the fact that all the teachers supported me and helped me prepare for the competition.