A team of students from GMIT’s Galway International Hotel School have been declared the winners of a prestigious national hospitality award.
The five person team were the winners of the 36th annual National Hospitality Business Management Game attended by tourism and hospitality colleges around Ireland.
The winning GMIT team members were Roisin Corrigan (Wicklow), Max Reid (Wicklow), Geraldine Ruddy (Mayo), Elaine Greene (Clare) and Abbie Daly (Monaghan).
Cáit Noone, Head of the Galway Hotel School, conveyed her congratulations to the team, mentors, and organisers.
“This event is a live competition testing students’ business acumen, knowledge and skills. We applaud the team’s success and thank them for their commitment in preparing and participating in this event when they are naturally busy with their final year studies.
“I am very grateful to mentors John Carty and Colin Gilligan and all the faculty who individually have played a role in preparing the students for the world of work and in turn this competition.”
Team Captain Roisin Corrigan said “We are ecstatic to have had the opportunity to represent GMIT and very proud to have walked away as the IHI Business Management Games winners.
“From this competition we have gained lifelong skills that we will carry with us in our future careers. We are very thankful and appreciative for the time and guidance given to us by our tutor John Carty and the support received from GMIT”.
The Galway International Hotel School is located on the Dublin Road campus, Galway city, offering courses in International Hotel and Hospitality Management, Event Management & Public Relations, International Tourism Management, Heritage Studies and Culinary and Gastronomic Sciences.
The school was the first in Ireland to award degrees in Hotel Management in 1977 and was named in the Top Ten Global Hotel Schools last summer.
The National Hospitality Business Management Game competition, supported by Fáilte Ireland, The Russell Partnership, Irish Hotels Federation and The Doyle Collection, saw the teams complete three challenges which tested the students’ business acumen and management skills.
Challenge 1 saw the students produce a digital marketing campaign for their hotel to target the Staycation market.
In Challenge 2 the students produced a go-to market strategy to re-imagine the way their hotel delivers meetings and events. In the final Challenge students completed a hotel simulation based on re-opening their hotel post Covid-19.
Tutor to the GMIT team, lecturer John Carty said that they are very proud of what the students accomplished.
