RMIT tourism students named as UNWTO Students’ League Winner

Tiếng Việt

RMIT tourism students named as UNWTO Students’ League Winner

A group of RMIT tourism students won the championship in a global tourism competition for their sustainability action plan to reduce plastic waste in Phu Quoc island, Vietnam.

The winning entry of the 2021 Global United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Students’ League, Plastics Pollution Challenge, Undergraduate category was awarded to the Walkie Talkie team from RMIT’s Saigon South campus.

The UNWTO Students League aims to empower and motivate tourism students by giving them real-time experience working in creating and implementing innovative and sustainable solutions for the challenges that the sector is facing.

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The winning team of of the UNWTO Students’ League, Plastics Pollution Challenge, Undergraduate consists of five Tourism and Hospitality Management students from RMIT University’s Saigon South campus: Nguyen Le Viet Huy, Do Thi Thanh Vy, Tran Nguyen Thuy Tien, Duong Nguyen Khanh Lam, Tran Nguyen Phuong Uyen, and Digital Marketing student Nguyen Thi Anh Thu.

The Walkie Talkie team scored the highest points in both challenges of the competition, which took place over four months with 750 projects coming from 100 different countries this year.

With the goal to help a tourism accommodation provider in Phu Quoc island reduce plastic waste and consumption, the team proposed innovative solutions including reducing plastic items in hygiene and sanitation, educating tourists about plastic waste, and cooperating with Organic Trade Association (OTA) to develop green badges.

“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has spiked the production and consumption of single-use plastic items such as face masks and bottles of sanitisers on an unprecedented scale, resulting in a considerable increase of plastic waste pollution in Phu Quoc,” The Walkie Talkie leader Nguyen Le Viet Huy said.

“Our Safe & Sustainable plan proposed specific and sustainable solutions which promisingly help not only the Pullman Phu Quoc Beach Resort but also the entire hospitality industry protect the ecosystem in a post-pandemic world,” Huy added.

According to the team’s research, almost all accommodation providers on the island have not implemented environmental practices whilst dealing with “the new form of plastic waste” during the pandemic.

“Our team believes that the island in general and the hospitality industry in particular need to take sustainable practices immediately, especially when Vietnam plans to re-open the resort island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists late this year,” said Nguyen Thi Anh Thu, a member of Walkie Talkie.

During the competition, the team applied RMIT’s advice to its students about best practice online learning, which helps them overcome the challenges when working as a team from home.

“We faced the common challenges in this stressful situation: remote working,” said Do Thi Thanh Vy, a member of Walkie Talkie.

“Stay motivated, get away from all the distractions, manage time and make sure you are always in a comfortable and quiet environment are what we applied to make our teamwork easier,” Vy said.

Mr Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the UNWTO judged that the Walkie Talkie’s strategic plan will assist the accommodation provider to become a pioneer in plastic reduction and make a positive impact on others in the industry.

The Walkie Talkie team will present their vision on the tourism sector to the UNWTO General Assembly at the end of November in Morocco and be invited to the Global Youth Tourism Summit 2022 held in Sorrento, Italy.

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RMIT Vietnam Tourism and Hospitality Management Program Manager Dr Jackie Ong (far right) and Team The Sustainablers including five tourism students Nguyen Tung Anh, Nguyen Thi Hong Anh, Choi Jaemin, Ngo Hai Ha, and Vuong Nguyen Hanh Nguyen.

As part of the UNWTO Students’ League, a group of RMIT tourism students from Hanoi has also reached sixth place out of 65 teams in the Tourism and Rural Development Challenge category.

The Sustainablers team developed a tourism marketing campaign for Nam Dam village in Ha Giang. The team’s proposal was to make Nam Dam the exemplary community-based tourism destination of Northern Vietnam through the offering of unique cultural and natural tourism products that suit visitors’ needs and expectations and contribute to the development, enrichment, and preservation of its culture, nature, and people.

According to RMIT Vietnam Tourism and Hospitality Management Program Senior Manager Dr Jackie Ong, the students’ achievements further substantiate the quality education of RMIT University in shaping students to become future leaders.

“At RMIT, students are equipped with good critical and analytical thinking and problem-solving skills in generating positive solutions to global related sustainability issues,” Dr Ong said.

“The Tourism and Hospitality Management Program has also embraced RMIT’s teaching and learning approach by embedding the concept of sustainability, authentic assessment, work integrated learning in all its courses.”

Story: Thuy Le

Business and management

04 November 2021