A fruitful collaboration between 3 future graduates and Bienne Seeland Tourism

As part of the “Institute Projects” module, a team of final-year Bachelor of Tourism students carried out a project for the Bienne Seeland tourism organization, part of Jura Trois Lacs.

The Seeland region has embarked on a process of reviewing and strengthening its sustainable tourism activities. In this contexte, one of the program's alumni, currently responsible for projects and sustainability at Tourisme Bienne Seeland, contacted Prof. Roland Schegg, head of the module, to propose a collaboration with students.

The project, to be carried out during the 2024-2025 fall semester with a particular focus on family expectations, aimed to understand tourists' perceptions and expectations of sustainability, to identify potential gaps between perceptions and concrete expectations, and to propose measures that combine enjoyment and sustainability to enhance the tourism experience while strengthening the region's commitment to responsible tourism.

To answer these questions, the three students in the group began with a literature review on sustainable tourism issues, which enabled them to prepare a survey with about twenty questions related to sustainability and the Seeland region. More than 400 responses were received, providing valuable information about tourists' perceptions of sustainability. In the second stage, they enabled the students to create personas or typical profiles of the region's target clientele. At the end of their work, the team drew up 4 recommendations for Tourisme Bienne Seeland, while opening up avenues for future research to refine these initial results.

The project leader and initiator of the proposal was delighted with the work: "I would like to thank you for including us as a case study in the HES-SO Valais/Wallis study program this year; I have received the results of the survey on tourists' perceptions of sustainability in our region and I am very pleased with them! It served to validate many of our sustainable strategic orientations and to highlight some new opportunities, while remaining realistic and relevant: I'm delighted." [Morgane Voumard, Tourisme Bienne Seeland]. 

For their part, the students showed great commitment to the project, motivated by the realization of a concrete mandate that would give them a foothold in their future professional world. "I would say that what I really liked was the fact that I was putting the project into practice in a real context. The fact that I had a mandate for a concrete project and not just a proposal that might be implemented". [Laura Kähr, student, project team member].

If you, your company, your association or any other organization has an idea for a project, a problem or a need that you would like to share with our students, please do not hesitate to contact the Service for companies and institutions, which will study your proposal and put you in touch with the appropriate person at our University of Applied Sciences.