Graduate colloqiuim event project Flavours of Málaga

The event was organised by the ‘Flavours of Málaga’ project team to share the fruitful results of their collaboration with the beneficiaries, project partners and TUI Care Foundation over the past year. With the overall aim to empower women through development of gastronomic heritage tourism products in Málaga, Spain, the event also showcased the valuable contribution of Saxion students which successfully completed their thesis projects contributing to the project’s activities and goals. The event kicked off with a brief progress overview by Inge Hermann and an insight into the lessons learned by Jan Willem Meijerhof. 

Furthermore, Elise Allart, Excecutive Director Programmes & Operations at TUI Care Foundation, presented the vision and mission of TUI Care Foundation which builds on the positive relationship with holidaymakers and harnesses the positive impacts of tourism in pursuit to make a difference for people and places in destinations around the world. She empahised the valuable contribution and impact of this specific project. 

Most attention was given to the Tourism Management thesis students, Sanne Vaalt and Annouk van der Lely. Sanne’s thesis successfully designed and implement a women empowerment measurement tool which was tested the beneficiaries in Málaga. The results illustrated that the project had a positive impact on the experienced women empowerment. Annouk’s thesis evolved around the experienced hospitality performance during a pilot workshop. Her results are already implemented in current tourism activities to align the performance with visitor expectations.