This year, the IFTM Year 4 students from the Tourism Business Management programme engaged in an industrial project via their entrepreneurship course to assist a local entrepreneur, James Sun, who established and runs the Best Concepts Planning Limited. This company conducts a series of projects in Macao, including the “Festival Das Castanhas” which is the Chestnuts Festival that will take place for three days on Broadway Hotel’ s food street from 11 to 13 November.
The project was designed and led by the course leader Dr. Fernando Lourenço. At the start of the project, students examined a range of previous academic studies to identify success factors for running festivals and interviewed over 100 locals and tourists to explore their attitudes, behaviour and intentions toward attending festivals in Macao. Many valuable insights were generated and consequently students developed a range of ideas for the Chestnuts Festival with rigorous justifications. Before the project presentation, Dr. Fernando Lourenço arranged a field trip for the students.
The research findings will surely influence the design of the festival and many of the ideas proposed by students will be considered. This mode of teaching is a valuable tool to support local entrepreneurs and the tourism industry as well as to create real-world learning opportunities for IFTM students.