The whole weekend was about analysing tourism markets at the international tourism market analysis competition “2022 STR Global Student Market Study Competition” organised by Smith Travel Research Share Center. On Saturday, November 19th, the bachelor students’ competition took place, and on Sunday, November 20th, students studying in master courses could compare their knowledge and skills. Both days started with a welcome speech from the vice president of the STR, followed by the introduction of the international jury. The finalist teams presented their results of the almost three-month-long preparation.
In the finals, the BBS FCHT team, the only team representing Europe, analysed the tourist and hotel data of Paris, partly relying on the STR Share Center’s big data and partly on other databases. The evaluation of the analyses was based on the persistent and enthusiastic work of three months. Some teams talked about their findings as “reporters” speaking to imaginary investors, others had carried out field work, too. Our students based their work on the databases with complex analysis and secondary research, and they produced an expert level professional discussion.
The conclusions and suggestions shared by the teams for those involved in this market were based on the past 12 years, emphasizing the pandemic period, and the situations before and after the spread of the virus. Another aim was to speculate on future opportunities, which was a much larger challenge due to the many uncertainty factors of today. The analysis contained and described data from the past, explored causes and effects, introduced trends and proposed plans and suggestions for improvements in the future. Our students introduced the French capital city, compared it with its competitors from various perspectives and showed a detailed study of the submarkets of Paris. According to the international jury, the BBS FCHT team’s presentation was “stunning” and “captivating.”
The winner in the bachelor students’ session was the team of Michigan State University, followed by the team of Babeş-Bolyai University. In the master students’ session, the winner was the team Cal Poly Pomona from California, and the second prize went to the BBH FCHT team with students majoring in tourism management: Annisa Husnul Latifah, Jessica Guzman Zapata, Mỹ Linh and Linh Nguyen (supervisors: Dr. Klára Karakasné Morvay and Dr. Éva Szabóné Erdélyi); they were followed by Auburn University, Georgia State University, Hong Kong University, and the team from the University of Florida.
STR, the main organiser of this competition, is an international consultant company, which maintains contact with the industry and higher education institutions. One of their main goals is to improve training and research in higher education. In his evaluation, founding president Steve Hood gave a speech to the finalists, and organiser vice president Duane Vinson emphasised that not only the teams in the finals show increasingly higher performance year on year but all the others as well. The jury could listen to high-quality presentations with rich content from the future experts of tourism, so it was very tough to make decisions. Everyone learnt a lot during the preparations and from each other’s presentations. Students could further improve their analytical skills, presentation techniques, efficiency in teamwork and they could also improve their competitiveness in the job market and enhance their professional networks. The students participating in each team will get one year of unlimited access to the STR database.