OMT supports hotel training

In partnership with the Sommet Education Group, the World Tourism Organization (OMT) maintains its focus on training in the hospitality industry, and will grant 30 scholarships for training programs globally.

This partnership will allow support to those who want to ascend in their careers as well as to those who want to change the course of their professional career, entrepreneurs and innovators who want to develop projects with the ultimate goal of helping to boost the recovery of the tourism sector.

Agora, as the sector resumes its activity, this competition launched by these institutions aims to identify innovative ideas, approaches and faces capable of accelerating recovery, while promoting inclusion and sustainability in the sector to reinvent the hospitality of the future. Selection criteria include the degree of disruption, project maturity and implementation potential, as well as feasibility, scale, scan level, sustainability and power to attract the interest of investors.

The competition will focus on different categories, designadamente, luxury travel, goods and services; hotels and related services: small to medium sized enterprises, Family businesses; alimentação e bebidas: restaurantes, catering, delivery and retail services; and smart real estate: small to medium-sized properties and family businesses.

About this initiative, Zurab Pololikashvili, WTO Secretary-General says that the tourism sector is a source of employment for many millions. Tourism jobs provide opportunity, empowerment and equality, including for women, young people and people living in rural communities. This reopening moment is the right time to rethink hospitality and to identify and implement new ideas to make the sector more inclusive and sustainable. This WTO competition will do just that.

Por sua vez, Benoit-Etienne Domenget, Sommet Education's Chief Executive Officer added that this crisis it gives us the opportunity to reconcile visions of the world that have been in opposition for a long time and invent the hospitality of tomorrow. We believe that training is the basis of a more hospitable world. Offering scholarships is a contribution to the recovery of the sector, accelerating the development of talented people with creative visions, supporting new approaches with the aim of renovating the hospitality area.

A competição, that ends not the end of August, has a Selection Committee composed of an international network of investors, WTO entrepreneurs and experts, affiliated members and strategic allies, as well as representatives from Sommet Education, which will select the 30 finalistas. These will be eligible for full scholarships in 15 different programs in Hotel Management, Cooking and Pastry, (Bachelors, Masters and MBAs) offered at academic institutions that are part of the Sommet Education Group: Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland and London, Les Roches Crans-Montana in Switzerland, Les Roches Marbella in Spain and École Ducasse in France.

Entre os 30 winners, os 3 more innovative entrepreneurship projects will receive funding to support early development. These projects will be financed by Eurazeo, leading global investment group of which Sommet Education is a part.