Anne Heidemüller is 38 years old and completed her Bachelor's degree in Tourism Management at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences from 2009 to 2012. She went to the University of Greifswald for her Master's degree. From 2014 to 2016, Anne Heidemüller helped develop and introduce the Lakeland Map for the Lausitz Lake District. She has been living and working in Leipzig at "absolutGPS" since 2016. In 2019, she returned to the HSZG for a year and worked as a lecturer for the "Cultural and Sports Tourism" module.

Her current workplace "absolutGPS" is a tourism consultancy that emerged from Leipzig University and stands for movement and lasting experiences. She comments on this and her specific areas of responsibility:

"In destination management, we have two tasks, consulting and product development in the areas of MTB/outdoor/active tourism and in the area of sustainable tourism.
I currently manage numerous active tourism projects, particularly in the areas of cycling and mountain biking. My position is at the interface of tourism conception and consulting. The project work is varied and ranges from the development of active tourism concepts, the implementation of feasibility studies and the management of stakeholder management processes to tourism surveys and economic analyses (e.g. on target groups, customer satisfaction, trends, competition, media, markets, potentials and locations).".

The current pandemic situation has changed her daily work routine to the extent that she is traveling less on business. She also emphasizes that meetings and workshops that are now held online are going really well. Her typical working day consists of preparing and conducting customer meetings, evaluating analyses, coordinating with the team, team management tasks and research. She emphasizes that no two working days are the same and there are always new tasks. Her job is unique and she explained this as follows:

"We develop and operate our own destination brands and work on behalf of tourism regions worldwide. It's challenging, meaningful and usually fulfilling. The focus is on value and values - our own and those of our guests."

Anne Heidemüller was very satisfied with her entry into the professional world and her current job. In general, she said that there is a wide range of job offers in the tourism sector. Only in her field of consulting are there fewer jobs. However, she had no problems finding a job and was able to start work after completing her Master's degree. She was also happy with the support of her colleagues and superiors, even though they were just a start-up at the beginning and all the structures had to be developed first. That really brought the team together. She also found her starting salary to be excellent.

Looking back, Anne Heidemüller only has good thoughts about her studies in Görlitz. She found the course to be very solid and has positive memories of the lecturers and the way the subject matter was taught.

"I learned a lot, especially about scientific work,"

she says. She found the challenging yet helpful nature of the lecturers particularly motivating. To round off her degree, she has a tip for all tourism management students:

"Do as many internships as possible. It's important to know where you want to go. Be courageous and make contacts, take advantage of opportunities."

Although Maria Winter no longer has any connection to the tourism industry, she was able to take the most important basics with her from her studies at the HSZG. She also has only positive memories of her studies in Görlitz:

"Many of my former fellow students are now my best friends. I always found it positive that everything is a bit smaller and more familiar in Görlitz. You knew each other and always knew that if there was a problem, you could address it and weren't just a student ID number without a face.

We also had the opportunity to discover a lot. In addition to some projects with practice partners, we often went on field research and excursions. That's really something special. I would choose Görlitz again today."

In conclusion, Maria Winter also gave a recommendation to all current students on the Tourism Management course:

"I would say, start early to be clear about what you want to do or not. The practical semester can really help you with this. It's totally okay if your first job isn't what you imagined, but it's always an experience that you can learn from. "

Maria Winter is an example of how a change of industry after graduation is no problem without industry-specific studies. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in tourism management at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. After graduating, she started working for an industrial service provider in Dresden in the online marketing department. She continues to work in the marketing industry to this day.

During her Master's degree, Maria Winter worked as a student trainee at the industrial service provider ARTS and was subsequently taken on directly. Her tasks are not limited to managing the website and social media channels:

"I work together with various service providers to make online marketing more effective and targeted. One major project, for example, was the website relaunch. [...] I carried out keyword analyses and created mappings, which I then used to create SEO texts. I also researched image material and ultimately took on the task of entering all the content."

At her workplace, the environment and atmosphere are very collaborative and collegial. Maria Winter said:

"I like to say we're Frollegen here - meaning friends and colleagues."

She has already grown close to her colleagues in her working student job and there is always an open exchange with her superiors.