December 03rd 2021

DGT-ITB Science Award 2021

MCI Tourism wins DGT-ITB Science Award 2021 in two categories | Award for "Best Young Researcher" and "Best Paper on eTourism"

MCI students receive the DGT-ITB Science Award 2021. From left to right: Tanja Hörtnagl-Pozzo, DGT board member, Niklas Reitz, MCI student and Hubert Siller, head of MCI Tourism. ©MCI
MCI students receive the DGT-ITB Science Award 2021. From left to right: Tanja Hörtnagl-Pozzo, DGT board member, Niklas Reitz, MCI student and Hubert Siller, head of MCI Tourism. ©MCI

Once again, and this time twice, there is good news to report at the MCI: MCI alumni Louisa Hendrich, M.A., and Niklas Reitz, M.A. each win the prestigious DGT science award in one category. The alumna and the alumna of the MCI's Entrepreneurship & Tourism program won the coveted award in the categories "Best Young Researcher" and "Best Paper on eTourism". This is the ninth time in a row that the prestigious DGT Science Award has gone to students of the MCI's Entrepreneurship & Tourism program.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award could not be presented as usual at the International Tourism Exchange (ITB) Berlin, but was presented in mid-November at the DGT Annual Conference in Europapark Rust. Louisa Hendrich convinced the DGT jury with her thesis "Authentic Tourism: How the (indigenous) Tour Guide impacts perceived authenticity and customer satisfaction", which was supervised by Theresa Mitterer-Leitner. The second prize winner, Niklas Reitz, wrote his master's thesis on "E-Tourism - Success factors of a tour operator website as an information and distribution channel" and was supervised by Ralph Berchtenbreiter. The two winners thus secured the prize of 1,000 euros.

MCI Tourism thus once again confirms its outstanding role as one of the leading tourism universities in the German-speaking world.

"I am very pleased that this year we were even able to win two categories with excellent Masters theses. This once again underlines the high quality of the teaching and the students in the Master's program "Entrepreneurship & Tourism" at the Entrepreneurial School®," said Prof. Hubert Siller, Head of MCI Tourism.

Theresa Mitterer-Leitner, M.A., is enthusiastic about the award for the thesis she supervised: "Louisa Hendrich's thesis is a valuable contribution to the continuing growing debate on authenticity in tourism and adds a very interesting and also highly relevant aspect to the state of research on the topic of perceived authenticity of the service provided by tour guides".

Dr. Tanja Hörtnagl-Pozzo, member of the board of directors of the DGT and responsible for young scientists: "Both master theses offer exciting insights into very current tourism topics. In addition, the awarded theses are characterized by a methodically very clean approach and are on a high scientific level."

DGT Science Award

The German Society for Tourism Science (DGT e.V.) annually awards the DGT Science Prize (traditionally at the ITB) for outstanding theses of tourism studies in the four following categories and was awarded for the 27th time in 2021.

1st Best dissertation
2nd Best junior thesis (bachelor and master)
3rd Best Master's thesis on the topic of eTourism
4th Best Master's thesis on the topic of sustainability in tourism.

 

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