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ANNUAL TOURISM / HOSPITALITY STUDENT CASE COMPETITION
In 2010, the Student Case Competition was replaced with a special Olympic-year opportunity: a Learning Legacies Competition.
Visit www.elegacies.ca and click on the competition logo to learn more.
The traditional Student Case Competition will return in October of 2011 at the annual BC Tourism Industry Conference in Vancouver.
2009 Case Competition Archives:
This annual competition provides an opportunity for students in BC’s tourism and hospitality programs to demonstrate their research, presentation, and problem-solving skills by answering challenging case questions in front of a panel of industry leaders. Student participants receive free registration to the BC Tourism Industry Conference and are eligible for cash prizes and other benefits.
The Task:
Student teams from across BC prepared 15‐minute presentations to answer tough questions facing the industry today. Following each presentation, teams answered questions from a panel of industry judges, who selected a first‐place winner in each category. Three first-place awards of $1000 were presented to the top teams on Friday, February 13th at 7:30 am, and the winning teams reprised their presentations at 9:00 am that same day.
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2009 Competition Theme: Tourism in Times of Change - Forging New Directions
Our industry is facing a number of challenges, including global recession and financial woes; labour shortages and workforce development issues; and ongoing concerns regarding climate change and environmental issues. These challenges represent potentially negative impacts on the future of BC’s tourism products and markets.
At the same time, we are entering an era of opportunities. We’re poised to host the world for the 2010 Games; the Vancouver Conference & Exhibition Centre expansion is near completion; the new BC Sustainable Tourism Partnership is about to be launched; and a range of new and exciting initiatives are in development – from aboriginal tourism to new
resorts. 2009 will mark the start of a great transition for the BC tourism industry!
As future industry leaders, teams have been asked to suggest approaches for successfully navigating the changing times ahead.
1. Degree Case Presentations: Click on School Name to Download
Given the context presented above, degree teams provided a set of recommendations for BC’s tourism/hospitality industry. Their recommendations addressed current challenges, and identified future opportunities.
2. Hospitality Diploma Case Presentations:Click on School Name to Download
BC’s hospitality industry associations are considering their ongoing role as key influencers of the industry, and asked teams to provide information and recommendations about sustainability opportunities presented by the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. It has been stated by several leading agencies the games will offer British Columbia (and Canada) the opportunity to demonstrate leadership in this area. With the eyes of the world upon us in 2010, how can we ensure our hotels, restaurants and other hospitality businesses showcase sustainable practices?
3. Tourism Diploma Case Presentations:Click on School Name to Download
Should community DMOs be positioned as destination marketing organizations
or as destination management organizations? Students demonstrated their understanding of these options by providing arguments for both sides of this debate. Based on this analysis, teams stated which main function a DMO should provide for the destination (marketing OR management?), highlighted core responsibilities of today’s DMO, and recommended strategic directions given the current climate of transition.
Click here to visit the 2009 Case Competition Event Page on facebook.
Please email morgan@linkbc.ca to request your copy of the resumes of 2009 competing students.
Click here to view a PDF of the awards slideshow with highlights from the 2009 competition.
Click here to access the 2009 Competition guidebook and a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
Pictured below at the 2008 awards ceremony is Rod Harris, President and CEO of Tourism BC awarding top prizes to the teams from Thompson Rivers University (top right), BCIT (bottom right), and Selkirk College (bottom left).
1. Degree Case Presentations
Doubling BC’s Tourism Revenues while Facing Global Climate Change
Case Question: At the 2004 BC Tourism Industry Conference, Premier Gordon Campbell charged the industry with doubling tourism revenues to $18 billion by 2015. The province then announced a number of investment projects geared towards reaching this goal. While a number of challenges have arisen in the years since this announcement, the impact of climate change on the tourism industry is also emerging as a critical issue moving forward, especially in a province branded as SuperNatural BC, and the Best Place on Earth.
Tourism BC and the Council of Tourism Associations have asked your management consulting team to advise a panel of tourism industry leaders on ways to address this high-profile challenge, while still focusing on growth targets. You have been asked to present a well-considered response to this question: Given the potential commercial, social, and environmental impacts of climate change on the global
tourism industry, how can the 2015 target of doubling of revenue be achieved in a sustainable manner?
2. Tourism Diploma Case Presentations
Hiring "Generation Y" – Strategies for Success
Case Question: BC tourism/hospitality employers are competing with other industries as we deal with an unprecedented labour shortage. It is imperative we understand the behaviours and motivations of the young career seeker, as our industry has traditionally employed a disproportionate number of young workers. Also known as the “Echo Boomers” and “the Millennium Generation”, Generation Y is composed of the children of baby boomers. Demographers typically identify these youth as those born between 1980 and 1994. In other words – this generation represents the up-and-coming tourism leaders of tomorrow.
go2 is BC’s tourism human resources organization. They have approached your consulting team to provide them with insight into this demographic group and to suggest strategies to attract, train, and retain Generation Y workers for the industry, given the current provincial labour shortage. You will be reporting back in a presentation to their executive team.
Teams:
3. Hospitality Diploma Case Presentations
Yield Management, the Canadian Dollar and the BC Hospitality Industry
Case Question: In recent months, the BC hospitality industry has been working to respond to the rise of the Canadian dollar, which reached a high of “$1 CAN = $1.10 US” in November 2007. By comparison, the lowest rate in 50 years was recorded in January 2002 ($1 CAN = $0.62 US). This economic challenge is in addition to other major influences on travel now being considered by the industry, such as border security and passport regulations, the war in Iraq and the US economic slowdown.
In just 5 years we have seen a complete transformation in the value of the Canadian dollar, with a range of impacts on accommodation operations. These might include problems establishing and maintaining profitable room rates, as well as attracting guests who are impacted by the eroding value of the US dollar.
The BC Hotel Association and the British Columbia Lodging and Campgrounds Association have invited your team to make a presentation at an upcoming meeting. They have asked you to use the principles of hospitality yield management to describe the challenge clearly, and then to suggest approaches on how BC’s accommodations operators and managers can ensure healthy occupancy rates and revenues, from a range of markets, despite the fluctuating Canadian dollar.
Teams:
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