Seven students of tourism in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland Russia, and South Africa have won prizes in the first annual student essay writing contest sponsored by the Global Travel & Tourism Partnership (GTTP), a…
Seven students of tourism in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland Russia, and South Africa have won prizes in the first annual student essay writing contest sponsored by the Global Travel & Tourism Partnership (GTTP), a coalition of tourism education programs in nine countries. Topics ranged from the attractions of small village in Hong Kong to hunting for truffles in the Kalahari desert of South Africa.
“Students were asked to write about some aspect of their country that they like, but that is often ignored because it is away from the main destinations that attract foreign visitors,” said Nancy Needham, executive director of the program of GTTP which serves about 420,000 students. “We called the topic ‘Secret Trails of my Country’.”
Students competed for national cash prizes of US$500 and two international prizes of US$1,000. The competition divided students into two categories: students over 15 years of age and students younger than 15.
Winner of the US$1,000 prize for students over 15 years of age was Hong Kong’s Sandy Tam Shuk Ting, who wrote her essay about the small village of Lo Wai, a tranquil and quiet home to three monasteries dedicated to Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism just 10 minutes away from the high rise buildings of Tsuen Wan, and one of Hong Kong’s largest shopping centers.
The US$1,000 prize for students under 15 was won by Russia’s Valeria Androvna of Moscow for her essay on a small 18th century palace built by the Tsars at Valday near Novgorod, on the highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
Contest information can be read at the GTTP website. National US$500 prize winners include:
- Hanelise Klopper, who lives in Upington in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, and wrote about hunting for truffles in the Kalahari with a guide from the San people;
- Brazil’s Paula Maria Heredy from Sao Jose Dos Campos who wrote about a waterfall hidden near a roadside snack bar;
- Diana Kulchitskaya of Moscow for her story on the annual flower festival at Kuzminki Park in southeast Moscow;
- Colleen Norris of County Longford in Ireland for her story about Derryscassin Wood;
- Erika Beaudry of Canada, who wrote about Assessippi, a ski/snowboard hill in Russell, Manitoba.
Judging the essay competition were Fran Gendlin, author of travel books and a former editor of Sierra Magazine; Michael Verikios, editor, Travel Daily News International, and Georgie Shields, vice president of the American Express Foundation.
The essays were judged on the basis of creativity, relevance to the theme, relevance of photos to the text, grammar, originality and style.
“Our objective with the essays is to provide an opportunity for students to research and write about travel and to improve their written communications skills,” said Needham. International winner, Sandy Tam, now hopes to “join the travel writing profession.”
Sponsoring the essay competitions were the GTTP’s global partners: Amadeus, S.A.; American Express; Hogg Robinson Group; The Hertz Companies; KLM; Lufthansa; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., and the World Travel & Tourism Council.
The member programs in the Global Travel and Tourism Partnership, established in 1986, work with education authorities, tourism ministries and about 2,300 local Travel & Tourism companies to introduce secondary school students to the industry and encourage them to choose it as a career.
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