Last week, 33 students on the Bachelor's degree course in Tourism Management began their studies at our faculty.

After a welcome, briefing and workshop on the subject, they set off on their first field trip/course / fieldwork in the general business studies module to important destinations in Saxony and Brandenburg. At Lake Bärwalder See, the students from Bavaria, Baden Württemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia and Russia gained an initial insight into the recultivation and tourism development of former opencast lignite mines. In the museum in Schleife, they familiarized themselves with the culture of the national minority of the Sorbs before finally heading to the study house in Großräschen, in the middle of the Lausitz Lake District.

The evening was spent eating pizza together and getting to know each other.

The next day was dedicated to discovering the tourist attractions of what will be Europe's largest man-made chain of lakes, a landscape that is in a state of flux. Marcus Heberle, Deputy Managing Director of the Lausitz Lakeland Tourism Association, explained the enormous challenges facing a destination that spans two federal states (Saxony and Brandenburg) and that has been developing and changing for years.

Like their predecessors, the students learned interesting facts about the history of the region with its open-cast mining landscapes, took a look at the still active Welzow open-cast mine from the visitor platform, visited tourist attractions that have already been created, such as the so-called "overrunners". They also visited the vacation park and town harbor in Senftenberg, the lighthouse hotel on Geierswalder See, which opened a year ago and was certified with four DEHOGA stars this year, as well as the "rusty nail" landmark.

The students marveled at innovative tourism infrastructure developments at the Koschen Canal and the Floating Houses.

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome our "new arrivals" once again and look forward to an interesting, practice-oriented three years ahead. We hope that we have already been able to infect them with the "tourism gene"!

Prof. Dr. Ute Pflicke