TRAVEL AND TOURISM STUDENTS STAGE ‘INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE – CELEBRATING DIVERSITY FESTIVAL 2023’ AT WEST LONDON COLLEGE
Travel and Tourism students staged the International Village – Celebrating Diversity Festival 2023 at West London College this week (Wednesday 29 March 2023). The varied and diverse exhibition saw student teams create fourteen interactive stands. Containing displays, artefacts, food, games, quizzes and brochures – plus promotional materials from countries and regions across the globe, many students dressed in national costume. Stands were judged on a variety of criteria to recognise the work that had gone into them and students were presented with certificates. India won the award for Best Overall stand, Columbia achieved second place and in third place was Poland. Formerly an annual event, the festival returns this year after a break in 2019 due to the impact of Covid on the College’s events schedule.
Countries and regions represented at the Festival were: Brazil, Columbia, Egypt, Grenada, India, Jamaica, Japan, Morocco, Philippines, Poland, Spain, Turkey, United States and the islands of Hawaii.
Some student teams had strong personal links to the country they had chosen to present. Prinal Dhiru, Divyangi Samji and Inoshka Estibeiro are from India. They brought a wealth of knowledge to their stand, which included Indian food, such as sweet and tangy pani puri and spicy samosas, henna hand-painting, a rich collection of brochures and posters – and a darts competition!
Travel and Tourism student Prinal Dhiru (pictured centre above) said: “India is a fascinating country for tourists to visit. There are so many cultures, customs, religions, languages – and there are many exciting festivals to go to from Holi to Navratri.”
Team Spain made T-shirts for the occasion and were selling cinnamon dusted churros and giving away potato and onion tortilla. Monika Nedeliaj (pictured right below) said: “None of our team are from a Spanish background, so we learned so much about the huge variety of landscapes, cities and regions in Spain in creating our stand for the Festival.”
Team Grenada displayed brightly dressed mannequins in carnival costumes, played songs by Grenadian artists and sold local delicacies. Dressed in specially designed ‘It’s in my DNA” T-Shirts, using the colours from the Grenadian flag, Team captain Camol Bethel (pictured left below) said: “The International Village Festival brings everyone together to work on creating something amazing and unique.”
Travel and Tourism Teacher Peter Smith said: “I’m thrilled that after months of hard work our Travel and Tourism Level 3 students have succeeded in creating this stunning event.”
Peter went on to say: “It would have been impossible to stage a festival of this scale without the Travel and Tourism Level 3 students’ dedication but also the dedication of their friends, families and supporters, many of whom attended the event. My special thanks go to the Estates Team who set up and took down the display equipment, the Cleaning Team before and after, Chef Lecturer Bob Curruthers from Hospitality and Catering who helped students to prepare food, and of course my Travel and Tourism colleagues Shirley Noel, Tracey and Dinesh Hirani.”
| Award for best stand display | |
| 1st Grenada | 2nd Poland |
| 3rd Hawaii | 4th Spain |
| Award for best food/drink | |
| 1st Jamaica | 2nd Columbia |
| 3rd India | 4th Brazil/Japan |
| Award for best national dress/uniform | |
| 1st India | 2nd Hawaii/Philippines |
| 3rd Spain/Columbia | 4th Brazil/Poland |
| Award for customer service/friendliness | |
| 1st Philippines | 2nd Brazil/Japan |
| 3rd USA/Turkey | 4th Columbia |
| TEACHING STAFF AWARDS | |
| Award for best planning, professionalism and teamwork | |
| 1st Columbia/Poland | 2nd Grenada |
| 3rd Philippines/India | 4th Jamaica |
| Award for best leadership | |
| 1st Poland | 2nd Columbia/Philippines |
| 3rd Spain/Grenada | 4th India/Jamaica |
| OVERALL BEST TEAM AND STAND- Combination of votes for all of the above categories | |
| 1st India | |
| 2nd Columbia | |
| 3rd Poland | |
| 4th Philippines/Spain |
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