Professors from Kinki University’s Faculty of Business Administration, including Kazuo Takahashi of the Department of Commerce, Mariko Tsutsui of the Department of Business Administration, and Yukiko Shinomiya of the Department of Commerce as associate professor, will collaborate with Resort Trust Inc., which operates membership-based resort hotels and other facilities at 41 locations domestically and internationally, to host a business plan contest on December 13, 2023, at the Higashi-Osaka Campus.
The contest is part of an industry-academia collaboration in the tourism sector, where students’ proposals addressing hotel marketing challenges will be evaluated. Students studying tourism theory and organizational management are required to submit plans to promote the appeal of Resort Trust’s destination hotels, which serve as the focal point of travel.
As a preliminary training, participating students visited Resort Trust’s membership resort hotel, “Exiv Biwa Lake,” in September 2023 to learn about the importance of improving hospitality and cooperation with the local community. The contest will feature unique proposals from the younger generation, leveraging these learnings, and will be judged by the general manager of Exiv Biwa Lake and others.
There are also plans to expand this initiative to include competitions among seminars from other universities. The event will take place from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM on December 13, 2023, at Classroom 104, Building E, on the Higashi-Osaka Campus of Kinki University, with 15 students from the Takahashi, Shinomiya, and Tsutsui seminars participating.
The judging panel will include Shinji Ito, the general manager of Exiv Biwa Lake; Daisuke Masui, the operations manager; Yuki Ishibashi, the brand ambassador; Yasunori Ota, the executive officer in charge of business planning; Tetsuya Kawade, the head of brand communication; Kaoru Mizushima, the manager of human resources and labor relations in Osaka; and advisor Yoshihito Kimata from Resort Trust Inc.
