TUI hands out the award for the best sustainable tourism thesis in the Netherlands
Melissa Tolman, the graduate of the Master of International Leisure, Tourism and Events Management of NHL Stenden, won the second prize of the TUI-CELTH Sustainable Tourism Thesis Award on Friday 8 November. This award is granted each year to students with the best thesis on sustainable tourism in the Netherlands. Melissa’s research was on the attitude – behaviour gap of millennials who went to Africa. The winner was Sophie van den Top of Saxion University who developed criteria on how to improve the sustainability of excursions at tourism destinations.
Pitch
Lecturers of various tourism courses in the Netherlands selected their best theses on sustainable tourism. Of all participants, eight students were invited to pitch their thesis at the final round on Friday 8 November at the headquarters of TUI Netherlands in Rijswijk. The expert jury developed a Top 3 based on the thesis and the pitch:
- Sophie van den Top – Saxion Hogeschool
- Melissa Tolman – NHL Stenden Hogeschool
- Marleen Niederprüm – Breda University of Applied Sciences
Developing a sustainable travel and tourism sector
The award is a cooperation between TUI Nederland and the Centre of Expertise, Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality (CELTH). Menno Stokman, the director CELTH about this cooperation: “A sustainable tourism sector should become the norm. With this award, we try to challenge the students to support the sector becoming more sustainable by doing research and generating innovative ideas. The student of today is the professional of tomorrow.” Melvin Mak, Manager Sustainability of TUI and chairman of the jury, about the winning thesis: “Local agents play an important role in making tourism products at tourism destinations more sustainable. This research shows that agents are willing to make progress. This is a chance for the whole travel branch. If all tour operators and travel agents ask of their agents to keep sustainability criteria for excursions, we can increase our positive impact on tourism destinations. Sophie’s thesis supports this.” Besides Melvin Mak, the jury consisted of Flip van Woerkom – Duurzaam Bedrijfsleven, Ewout Versloot – NBTC Holland Marketing, Akke Folmer, NHL Stenden Hogeschool and Ko Koens, Breda University of Applied Sciences.