Four student teams from the University of Guelph’s School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management recently competed at the Hospitality and Tourism Case Competition (HTCC) at Ryerson University winning first and second place in their respective categories.

The annual case competition welcomes students from Guelph, Ryerson and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) who develop and present solutions to challenges facing real organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry. Each case is written by the organization experiencing the particular challenge, making the competition especially relevant for students entering the industry. This year, the hospitality teams developed menu engineering and human resources solutions for a restaurant case in British Columbia and the tourism teams developed marketing campaigns and public relations solutions for an international tourism company.

“The competition gave us an opportunity to apply ourselves and use not only our analytical skills, but also our teamwork and communication skills,” said student Karen De Leon. “When we were presented with these cases and met the industry representatives, it was surreal just getting to speak with them about the organization and how our ideas may contribute to a solution for them.”

“We are very proud of the U of G team’s outstanding performance at the 9th annual Hospitality and Tourism Case Competition,” said professor Mike von Massow. “It was great to see them rewarded for their hard work and excellent presentations.”

The winning students from U of G are:

Hospitality Category

• 1st place: Amber Douel, Sarah Douglas and Colin Jackson
• 2nd place: Christian Cross, Karen Lam and Bonnie Nethery

Tourism Category

• 1st place: Karen De Leon, Katie Lo and Yonnie Wong
• 2nd place: Melanie Hampson, Sarah McGill and Christina Tennyson

Photo Slideshow

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First place: Hospitality

(l-r) Colin Jackson, professor Statia Elliot, Amber Douel, professor Mike von Massow and Sarah Douglas.

Second place: Hospitality

(l-r) Bonnie Nethery, Christian Cross, professor Statia Elliot, Karen Lam and professor Mike von Massow.

First place: Tourism

(l-r) Karen De Leon, professor Statia Elliot, professor Mike von Massow, Katie Lo and Yonnie Wong.

Second place: Tourism

(l-r) Professor Mike von Massow, Sarah McGill, Christina Tennyson, Melanie Hampson and professor Statia Elliot.