I have started my internship at Food Tourism Management in October 2022. First of all, I would like to say that I have a valuable experience under my belt. Prior to the start of the internship I have underestimated the experience that I would gain at Food Tourism Management due to the virtual internship. However, I was definitely mistaken. I am happy that I have took the step to apply for the internship and also succeeded to become an intern at Food Tourism Management.

At Food Tourism Management you have the opportunity to develop new skills, such as multitasking, communicating, learning to deal with diversity and dealing with deadlines. Also, the internship is a great way to network with people in the industry. There are opportunities to join different webinars and conferences related to food tourism. For instance, the UNWTO Gastronomy Forum and ITB Berlin, where contacts and open positions in the industry are possible options. Another great advantage at Food Tourism Management is that the tasks provided to you as an intern are diverse, and you are able to schedule the tasks according to the priority of each task.

In addition, the food tourism topic is broad and relatively new in many countries around the world, so it is a great opportunity to learn more about food tourism in-depth. I have also learned throughout the internship that it is never wrong to ask questions, by asking questions you will learn. Laureen Rashof is always available to assist on any question you may have. As my internship is coming to an end and I reflect back on all I have learned, I have realized, that it was an excellent experience. I have gained knowledge in the food tourism industry, something that was completely new to me when I started the internship and in the period of only three months, I could say I am satisfied with the knowledge that I have gained throughout the internship. It has served as a beneficial ending to my bachelor degree and a start of my professional career.

Once again, I am truly grateful for the opportunity, that Laureen Rashof and Food Tourism Management have provided me. I am of the opinion that Food Tourism Management has done an excellent job on developing the internship program. The internship is a taste of what the food tourism industry has to offer. Especially since the food tourism industry is still on the rise, I would strongly encourage any student who is interested in learning more about what food tourism has to offer and simultaneously develop their personal skills to apply for the open vacancies at Food Tourism Management.

I’m Yeonsoo Lee, a master student in Sustainable Tourism Management at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. As part of my studies, I had to find an internship where I can work 50 % of the time and the rest of the time, I can work on a practical university project that is written together with the internship company.

One of the professors at the Bachelor university oversaw local festivals. I was impressed with how he developed and promoted the food concepts for the festivals in each city and town, but I didn’t know much about the process and how it works in the real field. Also, I wanted to work with an English-speaking project partner from a different culture. This is why I decided to apply for the internship at FTM. Also, I wanted to be able to work with an inspiring start-up which was brilliant enough to form a food tourism business and to take them as a role model.

With the internship at FTM, I was looking forward to learning profoundly and practically about food tourism and its role in becoming common in more cities and countries in the future. The expectations of working as an intern in the food tourism business was to sharpen my practical and industrial skills and techniques.

Unlike other companies, I was able to feel Laureen’s passion and enthusiasm during the interview as well as by looking around the ideas and contents on the website that aroused my interest in food tourism.

I searched for DMOs all over Germany. As a result, we found out that several cities were interested in the importance of food tourism for their destinations as they applied for our webinars. Furthermore, it was my job to support the process by searching all cities’ information of DMOs so that FTM could get the opportunity to develop, promotion and manage food tourism for their cities.

I searched for food and beverage festivals, fairs and potential companies in Germany that provide food-related tourism and I learned that there are numerous efforts and projects to preserve and promote unique local foods everywhere. Furthermore, it was an opportunity to learn about various food tourism concepts and practices. I also learned that the ratio of sustainable forms is increasing and people’s awareness is improving when thinking about the environment.

The rest of my tasks were finding public holidays related to food tourism for social media content, backing up all pages of the FTM website in case of a sudden shutdown, making sure the links are working and optimising and collecting suitable photos for promotion of FTM’s other food projects in progress. In addition, finding food tour operators hidden potential target customer throughout Germany, what kind of food tours they focus on (cooking classes, breweries tours, food tours with music, wine tasting, vegan food etc.), and collecting contact ways to them as well. It was a meaningful time that I was able to assist her by her side while carrying out these tasks in the process for her to go to each final stage.

Overall, the internship and project itself was very joyful.

I believe that my superior Laureen provided a very warm and understanding workspace as she was always open-minded, proactive and willing to give feedback and help whenever needed in various fields of work and projects. She motivated me by giving positive and honest feedback on my progress and plans.

Laureen taught me that communication with managers and members is very important and that accurate and consistent conversations are essential to avoid misunderstandings. She always gave me detailed and easy-to-understand explanations whenever I asked her with my difficulties tasks, and I was impressed by how she eagerly responded to meetings, conversations and her business.

As part of my university project, I have been working on a report regarding the ‘Sustainable Development of Food Tourism at Various Destinations’. Sometimes, due to the language barrier I had difficulties in accurately grasping the direction and structure of the assignment given by my university. However, during our weekly meetings, Laureen explained it easily until I could understand it. We had in-depth conversations, she guided me through the instructions and also inspired me a lot.

The internship involved various tasks like market analysis, data research, brainstorming, and content writing such as blogs, reports, and LinkedIn posts.

The internship provided me with knowledge of the tourism sector and how food tourism can be used as a potential strategy to develop and market tourist destinations. Additionally, my understanding of the tourism industry was improved, such as the factors to be considered while considering the development of a food tourism project at a destination, and I gained insights on various strategies that can be adopted accordingly in the projects. Furthermore, I learned about different management tools that can be used in the analysis of the tourism environment of a destination and how I can systematically present ideas and develop strategies for local food businesses and destination marketing projects.

First and foremost, I was able to improve my analytical skills and gather insights about various situational analysis and management tools used in report preparation for depicting the results to the readers. Apart from that, I was able to improve my content writing skills, both in terms of online content writing and the academic style of writing.

The skills that I have gathered in the course of my internship at FTM would definitely benefit me in upgrading my profile and increasing the likelihood of being hired while applying for similar positions in the future. Moreover, I enjoyed working with Laureen, and she gave me the freedom to present my ideas, which kept me motivated throughout the period of the internship to deliver the tasks on time. Also, I was given regular feedback and suggestions on the quality of my work and the aspects to be considered while performing each task, which helped me polish my skills abundantly.

As a person who believes that the opportunity to share my ideas and an environment where I can work with freedom and flexibility would definitely reflect in the quality of my work delivered, I can definitely say that my expectations were met working at FTM. Above all, the internship involved a healthy exchange of ideas and thoughts between Laureen and me, which helped me widen my horizons and perspective on the food tourism sector.