Master's Programme "Experience Economy: Hospitality and Tourism Management" Offers Five-Star Internship Experience
The Master's programme "Experience Economy: Hospitality and Tourism Management" is considered to be practice-based. It gives students the opportunity to understand and experience the reality of the hospitality and tourism industries.
This year, first-year Master’s students in the programme "Experience Economy: Hospitality and Tourism Management", were able to experience event management in hotels and hostels in Russia and Europe as part of an internship programme. Why was this rather unusual aspect of the hotel industry chosen as the object of research? Such an internship, as well as immersing students in business processes, provides several important opportunities, including the opportunity to build a personal network of contacts, potential colleagues and employers.
"We wanted to combine two things in the internship student interest in the hotel industry (many of them have already worked in hotels) and event planning. Event planning is now a worldwide trend in five-star hotels and hostels. Moreover, hotel events go far beyond the realms of the traditional business affair. Hotels host wonderful concerts, lectures, fashion shows and other lavish and star-studded events. We asked students to conduct benchmarking of event-related hotel activities in tourist destinations which resemble St. Petersburg in terms of their attractiveness. Students interviewed representatives of hotels, analyzed reviews of hotel events in social networks and carried out benchmarking of 15 hotels in Russia, Vienna, Barcelona, Berlin and Prague. The project was supported by hotels such as W Hotel, the Lotte, the Trezzini Art Hotel, Crown Plaza, Ibis, Astoria, Marriott, Park Inn, Sokos Olympia Garden, three Park Inns by Radisson (Pribaltiyskaya, Pulkovskaya and Nevsky), Baby Lemonade Hostel, Traveller's Palace Hostel and Soul Kitchen Hostel. Students were able to make recommendations for improving events, which were passed on to the hotels after being discussed with programme teachers."
Two students in the programme
The Master's programme "Experience Economy: Hospitality and Tourism Management" gave us the opportunity to have do an internship in one of the best hotels in St. Petersburg – "Park Inn by Radisson Pulkovskaya". We were able to study all the event-related activities of the Park Inn and other leading hotels. We were able to work on some important skills, including conducting interviews, benchmarking and social media analysis . Based on the results obtained, we were able to make recommendations, which were subsequently presented to the hotel management. We have also been able to enhance our professional network as a result of the internship."