Always being passionate about travel, different cultures and landscapes, I have started out my journey for a more sustainable tourism worldwide. Being curious, at the same time maintaining focus help me on the way.

After having graduated from EMTM, I continued my professional path in the field of tourism. I settled down in Berlin and started working in a tour operator as product manager for individual travel design with focus on Latin and North America. As I had been living in Central America for three years, it gave me the perfect opportunity to combine my passion for the region with my daily work. At the same time, I was in regular communication with my customers, which gave the job also a social touch. However, driven by curiosity and ambition, I was keen on working in tourism consultancy aiming at providing some positive impact in the broad field of tourism, preferable in international tourism projects – but step by step….

In 2017, I entered the world of consultancy in a German tourism consultancy firm, where I gained great experience and deep insights into the elaboration of tourism and marketing concepts at local and regional level of German tourism destinations. But somehow, I was missing the international aspect as well as the mindset of a tourism development in a sustainable way. Favourable circumstances fostered my decision to quit my permanent employment and to start working as freelancer. Thanks to previous networking and an internship during EMTM, I joined the team of mascontour (associate partner of EMTM), a Berlin based tourism consulting company that focuses on innovative and responsible tourism. Since 2018, I have been working in various tourism projects in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia with a strong focus on sustainable development through tourism.

Now you might ask yourself, what consultancy work comprise of? – Every single project is different, but major tasks are the elaboration of tourism and marketing concepts, development of training programmes and micro-learning courses, evaluation and monitoring as well as coaching. Besides tourism consultancy, I have given lectures to tourism master students and supported the trade fair appearance of international institution at ITB Berlin. 

Exactly this great variety of projects and related tasks I am dealing with make my professional work so interesting and diverse, at the same time it challenges me each time. This drives my motivation and curiosity ever more, as there is so many new fields to discover and things to learn. And I am always connected to travel, different cultures and landscapes worldwide. 

EMTM has influenced my path in many ways. Definitely, it helped me to cope and deal with unknown situations in a pragmatic and solution-oriented way. Further, it fostered greatly my flexibility, ability for team work, cultural understanding and creativity. In a nutshell, each single encounter and experience throughout EMTM, both in the private and study context, shaped my personal and professional path and brought up life-lasting friendships. 

Warm greetings and stay healthy!
Franzi

Written by Franziska Rottig, Alumna of EMTM Generation 2013-2015