HTMi would like to congratulate our students Martina Leep, Renee de Bruyn, Rakiya Akimalieva, Adnan Kulenovic and Dan Nguyen for showing outstanding professionalism and dedication and upholding the highest HTMi standards during the whole competition. Thanks also to the coaches Mr. Anthony Lack and Mr. Tudor Campan for their leadership and guidance of the team in reaching the final of this great competition milestone. We look forward to the next EMCup 2021 competition.

HTMi Switzerland is very proud to announce that for the second year it came within the top 9 European hotel schools during the EMCup 2020, also ending up ahead of Swiss Hotel Management Schools in both the second round of 18 schools in the debates round and finally to the final stage of nine schools. 36 hospitality schools from 17 countries with more than 180 students participated during two exciting competition days in Maastricht. HTMi Switzerland was the winner of the first sales pitch amongst four hotel schools in their jury room. Another outstanding achievement was that team member Adnan Kulenovic was the overall “Winner of the Resume Application Award” amongst approximately 180 students announced at the gala dinner.

The EMCup is the annual competition amongst the best European Hotel Management Schools and offers students the chance to make a difference with their visions and ideas. It was also a marvellous opportunity for students to network with industry professionals from leading hotel companies and discuss jobs. The students were judged by a Business Jury, consisting of more than 70 hospitality professionals from 42 different companies. These companies were amongst the leading hospitality companies such as Hilton, IHG, Leonardo Hotels, Kempinski Hotels & Resorts, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, HRC International, Heineken, Student Hotels, Sea Containers London and many more.

The 12th edition of the EMCup was held in Maastricht, The Netherlands on the 16th & 17th of February 2020. This year’s theme is “Battle of the Brands – Will Hotel Chains Survive, in the Battle for Guest Loyalty?”

Some Detail :

The teams of students conducted several assignments prior to the competition. They had to set-up a social media campaign to increase brand awareness on the EMCup and its theme. Besides that, the teams had to write an academic paper, which was graded by the Business Jury members and needed to create a one-minute video and team photo highlighting the team and this year’s topic. The teams pitched their academic paper during the competition days. Furthermore, they worked on a second pitch as well, where they were given 40 minutes to prepare for. Based on the results of all the previous elements the top 2 teams of every jury room were part of the ranking of the top 18 where they had to battle it out during the debates round. From the debates the top 9 schools received the opportunity to elaborate on their case in the grand final sales pitch to a large audience.

Anthony Lack – Head of Events Education and Planning