CBS Subsidy Award at the ITB on Sunday, March 15, 2009

This year, creative junior practitioners in tourism will again be able to show their worth and pocket big prizes. At the award ceremony of the CBS Subsidy Award, high school graduates who have developed visionary concepts for the tourism industry will be granted a scholarship for Cologne Business School amounting to 50,000 euros.

The awards will take place on the stage of hall 5.1 on Sunday, March 15, 2009, from 10.55-11.15 a.m.

This is the third time for Cologne Business School (CBS) to offer this subsidy award under the motto of “Market gaps in tourism – Who will uncover them?”.

Students from the eleventh grade onwards, as well as vocational students in tourism-related training courses were eligible to take part and submit entries explaining their ideas on market gaps in the tourism industry, client benefit, advantages in competition and opportunities and risks of the new product. Main criteria were creativity and thinking outside the box.

The entries were judged by a jury made up of Prof. Dr. Torsten Widmann (head of the CBS Tourism Event Hospitality Management department), Martina Leicher (CEO of COMPASS GmbH) and Klaus Laepple (President of „Deutscher ReiseVerband e.V.“ (DRV – German Travel Association) and of the Federal Association of the German Tourism Economy (BTW)).

The highlight of the competition will be the award ceremony at ITB 2009 in Berlin. There, the top three winners will have the opportunity to present their ideas to an audience of experts and to establish direct contacts with the tourism industry.

In addition to receiving scholarships, the winners will also have the opportunity to get involved with the research and teachings of CBS. This will also allow them to further pursue their market gap idea under scientific guidance, and possibly even realize it.