By Fraaz Mahmud Kasuri
Since 1984, Eurhodip has been organising yearly conferences in partnership with one or several member schools, in order to give hotel and tourism education specialists, directors and teachers from schools or universities as well as professionals from the hospitality industry the opportunity to communicate, discuss and compare experiences on current issues. Students of Eurhodip’s member schools take part in the conference through the Marianne Müller Award.
This year, 29th Eurhodip conference, under the umbrella of European Union, and with the theme of “NOW! Time to be OUTSTANDING!” was held in Evora, Portugal where more than 200 students from 150 hotel, culinary and tourism schools from 39 countries participated in the international hospitality competitions.
The purpose behind holding this conference and competitions was to brainstorm and come up with distinctive ideas and speeches to innovate the world of hospitality.
College of Tourism & Hotel Management (COTHM) is the only hotel school from Pakistan which represented the country at the 29th Eurhodip conference held in Evora, Portugal with its 4 students of hospitality management.
A total of 4 students from COTHM, Yasmeen Aqeel, Zainab Shafiq, Jasim Khan, and Hamza Ali Lodhi took part in different competitions held at the conference and contested in different categories of Food and Beverages, Marketing Management, Tourism Management, Gastronomy International Competition (GIC), Eurhodip Startup Challenge (ESC), Eurhodip Video Creation Competition, and Best Eurhodip Hotel Competition from November 9 to 13, 2022. Above 200 participants from around 150 hotel school located in 39 countries who contested in these competitions were evaluated in the disciplines of: Cuisine, Patisserie, Restaurant Services and Sommelier.
Representing Pakistan at such prestigious European forum, COTHM’s two Hospitality Management students Zainab Shafiq and Jasim Khan won bronze medals and certificates in Marketing Management and Food and Beverage Management competitions respectively. With these two medals, Pakistan has become the only country that has won 2 bronze medals among all the countries participating in the 29th Eurodip conference & competitions.
COTHM Founder & CEO and Member, Board of Directors, Eurhodip Ahmad Shafiq also participated in the 29th Eurhodip conference to officially represent Pakistan and encourage the Pakistani students there.
While talking to Hospitality Plus, Zainab Shafiq said that attending Eurhodip conference was such a great opportunity and she would definitely utilize this learning experience in her academic career at COTHM.
She also said that “winning bronze medal while competing with above 200 international hospitality students is an amazing feeling and I am happy to make Pakistan proud
Jasim Khan said that “this international competition has updated us with so many new dimensions in the fields of hospitality and tourism. We are thankful to COTHM for providing us with such an amazing opportunity.”
COTHM Founder & CEO and Member, Board of Directors, Eurhodip Ahmad Shafiq while talking to Hospitality Plus said that COTHM students’ success at 29th Eurhodip conference is actually a feather in Pakistan’s cap. He also said that COTHM will always try to represent and enlighten Pakistan’s name at every forum whenever and wherever possible.
