TMI announces winners of the 2021 Student Awards

• Lewis Rodger of Glasgow Caledonian University &
• Sophie Elliott of Sheffield Hallam University

Lewis, who has just graduated with a BA (Hons) in International Events Management, successfully helped develop an incentive travel experience for tour operator ‘Celtic Connections’ as part of a consultancy project. The panel were particularly impressed with the credible destination impact for Glasgow which Lewis demonstrated in his submission.

Sophie, who has just graduated with a BSc (Hons) in International Tourism and Hospitality Business Management, undertook a high quality research project for ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’.  The panel congratulates her on the public engagement Sophie secured with individual tourism businesses resulting in a high response rate and insightful results. These findings effectively demonstrated the importance of the destination management organisation and were recently presented at the organisation’s annual conference.

In addition, our joint winners of the 2021 Simon Curtis Postgraduate Prize  are:

• Mia Oktafiana of Bournemouth University &
• Lindsay Robbinsof Glasgow Caledonian University

Mia,as part of her MSc Tourism Marketing Management degree, successfully delivered a highly relevant research project for the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism, evaluating the effectiveness of online promotion during the pandemic as part of her dissertation. The findings have made a valuable contribution to their future promotional strategy.

Lindsay,as part of her MSc International Tourism and Events Management degree, made a key contribution to the research project focussed on building the digital identity of a destination as part of the ‘Turning the Tide on the Clyde’ project working with the Clyde Docks Preservation Initiative (CDPI).  The focus on effective tourism management particularly for smaller community-based tourism organisations to adapt an increased level of digitisation was especially valuable.

TMI’s Head of CPD Maeve Marmion comments:

‘I am delighted to congratulate Lewis, Sophie, Mia and Lindsay as very worthy winners of our 2021 TMI Awards. The past year has been incredibly challenging for our students and it is fantastic to see that they have

succeeded in delivering such high quality projects which have proved to be so valuable to the respective destinations. This work has given them valuable experience which will undoubtedly enhance their future career prospects. I wish them all the very best for the future.

On behalf of the panel I would like to thank all students studying TMI recognised degree programmes who put forward applications for this year’s awards. It is great to see how engaged our future tourism managers are at such an early stage of their academic and professional careers.’

The annual awards are a very important way for TMI to recognise the achievements of both undergraduate and postgraduate students on recognised TMI degree programmes who have undertaken a relevant work placement or research project as part of their degree. The awards demonstrate how they have successfully applied their academic knowledge by actively working with a destination management/tourism organisation here in the UK or overseas.

All four award winners will receive a one-to-one professional mentoring session with a senior member of TMI as well as a complimentary place at the TMI Annual Convention on 19/20 October, the opportunity to write a blog for the TMI website on their placement/project as well as one year’s associate membership of TMI.

Further information: Joyce Cawthorpe, CPD Co-ordinator, TMI: cpd@tmi.org.uk; M: 07590 123299

Notes:

1. The annual TMI David Hughes Memorial Award was launched in 2012 in honour of former TMI President David Hughes, who tragically died in December 2011.

2. The TMI Postgraduate Prize was launched in 2015 and renamed the Simon Curtis Postgraduate Prize in 2019 in honour of TMI past President Simon Curtis, following his death in January 2019. 3. Please refer to the TMI website www.tmi.org.uk for a full list of the tourism and management degree programmes recognised by TMI.