France/ Seine-et-Marne: students work to strengthen twinning ties with Cambodia
A new and innovative educational project run by the Lycée François-Couperin celebrated the town of Fontainebleau's twinning with Siem Reap. Find out more.
As part of the twinning between Siem Reap (Cambodia) and Fontainebleau(Seine-et-Marne), an intercultural collaborative project got underway in September 2023. An educational project that brought together 1st-year BTS Tourism students from Lycée François-Couperin, students from the Siem Reap Hotel and Tourism School, and their teaching teams.
Students design tourist circuits
Last week saw the final of this educational project: the end of an adventure that has lasted almost a year, and involved a great deal of exchange between students, to check the feasibility of their project and to make sure that it was a success.It also gave each student the opportunity to discover more about the twin towns.
"The aim was to get students from our two schools to work together on designing different tourist circuits in Cambodia, as well as in Fontainebleau and the surrounding area", explains Fatima Brocheton, a BTS Tourism teacher at Lycée François-Couperin. The students worked in groups and organized themselves into travel agencies.
For example, the students in Siem Reap were asked to propose a tourist itinerary for Fontainebleau and the surrounding area, and vice versa. The town's twinning and international relations department facilitated links between schools. The groups then competed against each other in a challenge to elect the best travel agency.
The competition began with a presentation by the students in Siem Reap on November 5. The Bellifontaine students were welcomed at the town hall on Tuesday, November 19, to present their work to a jury comprising Charlène Pires, Director of the Mercure HotelMercure hotel, Véronique Silcret, from the Fontainebleau-Angkor Twinning Association, Sophie Delas, the assistant principal at Couperin and Emmanuel Jaulin, from Tour-Operator O-Nord, based in Vulaines-sur-Seine.
The panel of judges became the fictitious agency's customers for the duration of the presentation, and had to assess the students on the basis of their welcome, their product sheet, their sales pitch, and the carbon footprint of the proposed tour.
"Creating a complete trip to Cambodia
The assignment was to create a complete trip to Cambodia," summarize the Bellifontaine students. We proposed various tours, drawing on the professional skills acquired during our training. "
A real challenge for them, which also proved to be an enriching experience for discovering Cambodia's culture and riches. "Designing these tours was a first concrete experience, a first step for our future careers", they conclude.
On Thursday November 21, the finalists from each country made their presentations in Cambodia to Paul Dubrule (founder of the Accor group and former mayor of Fontainebleau), who has set up a hotel and tourism school in Siem Reap. In addition to the experience gained, the students won several prizes donated by the members of the jury.
Source: actu.fr/ile-de-france/
