On Wednesday the opening ceremony of the AEHT's Annual conference and competitions was held at Kuressaare Sports centre.
The annual conference of the European Association of Hotel and Tourism Schools is an important event for you, but it is an even more important event for this town," said the mayor of Kuressaare Mrs. Urve Tiidus. "The chance of you all staying in our town together as visitors would be one to ten thousand or even less without your Association’s tradition of holding the annual conference in members’ towns."
The participants of the event were also greeted by Mr. Toomas Kasemaa, the governor of the Saaremaa County and by Mr. Louis Robert, the president of the AEHT.
After the flag ceremony and parade of the competing students there was a show giving an overview of Estonian history thorough the development of fashion and clothing.
The hosts of the opening ceremony were Suur Tõll and Piret, a mythical hero of Saaremaa and his wife.
Next in the programme was lunch. For the conference, the biggest restaurant of Saaremaa island was set up, seating 700 people. In addition to the host, Kuressaare Regional Training Centre, the waiters and waitresses were students from the Tallinn School of Service and Virginska Skolan in Orebro, Sweden.
In the afternoon the teachers had a chance to participate in workshops and seminars. Guided tours of the Handmade Natural Soap Factory and handicraft workshops were very popular. Meanwhile the students had to work hard at the competition briefings and theoretical tests.
"You need good teamwork skills and good knowledge of intercultural relations to succeed," said Mr. Neeme Rand, the director of the host school. "Students from different countries have just met and need to start working together as a team immediately."
Altogether almost 700 participants arrived in Kuressaare for this year's conference, of whom 331 are students.
