By Nishi Ramsurrun
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
On the 9th of November 2022, our BA Business Management Level 5 students had an opportunity to attend the World Travel Market (WTM) 2022 for the first time. The event was organised to align with their Entrepreneurship module. As such, students were asked to develop a business idea as part of their assessment. They were asked to analyse the feasibility of the UK market, opportunities for successful business plans, industry analysis, and finance and marketing activities for a start-up business.
In WTM, our students attended sessions on various topics such as how the travel industry can remain relevant to today’s tech-hungry customers, customer insights, the importance of culture and the customer decision-making process, and how to win a business. Additionally, there was a chance for them to find out about over 200 countries under one roof. They learnt about different cultures, traditions, marketing campaigns, unique selling points and much more. The event helped them discover how to cultivate professional connections around the world.
It was exciting to see our students engaging in real business discussions, asking questions, and reflecting and critically analysing their ideas. They danced, embraced other cultures, and, most importantly, enjoyed the event. The pictures show their enthusiasm and speak for themselves.
It was an informative and educational outing, where the students had the opportunity to dive into the real world of entrepreneurship thus contributing to their employability skills such as developing oral communication, negotiation, teamwork and so on. As the organiser, I will encourage more of these activities and will continue to promote them and encourage students to attend.
Student Pavlina Veleva said:
“Today's event at Excel London was wonderful for me. I got into every country's culture. I felt like I visited all of them. The experience and feeling I got were incredible. The lectures, which we heard were skillful and I learned a lot. Thanks so much to Nishi, our lecturer, who took us there and to Mr Anupam who allowed us to go to the event.”
Student Daniela mentioned:
“It was a very interesting experience for me yesterday! There were many things to visit, many different countries, customs, cultures and mentalities and all this in one building! I definitely want to go again in the future – it was fun and educational at the same time!“
Student Radoslav Kamberov said:
“Nishi, THANKS A LOT for providing us with such a great opportunity to have a chance to see how big events are going to be advertised worldwide, especially in London, and being there together with our class and having so much fun at the same time.”