In the end of the last academic year students and lecturers of Business Administration - Tourism and hospitality management study program of the Faculty of Economics and Management participated in study-research trip in Switzerland. The aim of this study trip was to carry out a research on the identification of Latvia’s brand as a tourism destination, as well as to find out the consumer characteristics of the Swiss people as potential tourists and overall there were surveyed more than 500 people.

The other aim of the trip was the field research and analysis of the functioning, the positive and negative aspects of various tourism objects and tourism products in Switzerland. Students and the academic staff visited the conference department of Tourism office in Luzern, where they participated in a seminar and discussed several issues on the conference-tourism events and its development in this city. In the Rocks Resort hotel complex students had the chance to get to know the real life experience of introduction and promotion of specific tourism products in the Swiss market. Other activities were mainly connected with learning about the tourist attraction concept by using the typical Swiss product manufacturing process. The technological manufacturing process of cheese and chocolate products in visitor centers in Gruyere were good examples to that. By visiting the Trummelbach falls, Aar Gorge, Grindelwald-First longest gondola lift systems students analyzed the importance of tourism infrastructure in nature objects. In 2011 a similar research by the students of Tourism and hospitality management students and lectures was made in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany with a financial support of Baltic – Germany higher education center. The results of the student research are suitable and can be used by the Tourism Development State agency of the Ministry of Economics in its marketing activities in various target markets, and the data was also used by 2 lecturer and 1 students report in the 70th scientific conference of the University of Latvia and also students presented the results in conference in Greiswald, Germany and Vidzeme University College.

Share