In the Emerald Forest Hotel business simulation, teams of students take over the management of the hotel and make decisions covering all areas of business during four intensive days.
The marketing lecturers at the Department of Business Administration have been running the Emerald Forest Hotel business simulation since 2010, and this experience is also highly valued backstage. Business simulation lecturers René Arvola and Marianne Kallaste, together with four Master's students, supervised a simulation at the Catholic University of Eihcstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany in February-March this year. Kadi Askileiskiri, Kristel Kirs, Kersti Riispapp and Helen Silts, students who participated in a marketing simulation at our university last year, were invited to Germany this year to help run the simulation there as tutors.
What makes this simulation special is that, in addition to the "right" figures, an effective strategy has to be developed and a large number of supervisors have to be convinced. The simulation includes real activities: exhibiting at a tourism fair, meeting investors, presenting a value proposition, crisis management and promoting the hotel in different media.
Kadi Askileiskiri and Kersti Riispapp guided the students through the simulation challenges, because having participated in the same simulation a year earlier, they knew best how to get the most out of the game. Kristel Kirs and Helen Silts managed the media for the simulation together with three local students. They created an online publication that covered the news from the simulation venue and offered the participating "hotels" a chance to stand out.
One of the specialisations of the university (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) in Ingolstadt and Eichstätt in Bavaria is tourism. Both cities have a lot to offer in terms of tourism. Ingolstadt's identity today is given by the Audi factory in the city. However, the city has been known throughout history both as the birthplace of the present Munich University and as the place where the Reinheitsgebot, the purity law for beer, was promulgated. In addition, Frankenstein and the Illuminati have made the city famous. Eichstätt is the burial place of Walpurga, the saint of healing, whose memorial day, 1 May, is known as May Day.