Tourism Management Institute (TMI) announces winners of the 2025 Student Awards after a record number of entries!

The TMI is delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 TMI Student Awards. These annual awards are an important way for the TMI to recognise the outstanding student contributions made to the tourism industry by showcasing their work, gaining important recognition both for themselves and their university, and illustrating how they make an impact in the evolving world of travel and tourism.

The redesigned 2025 TMI Awards are the‘TMI Tourism Student Inspiration Award’ (undergraduates) and the ‘TMI Simon Curtis Postgraduate Prize’ (postgraduates).  Each Award provided students with the opportunity to deliver a narrated powerpoint video presentation (5-minute) on a relevant topic.

Attracting 17 high quality entries, the videos showcased the high calibre of students studying tourism management on TMI recognised courses.  So much so, the judges ‘were blown away by the exceptional quality’ of applications this year.  The judges felt that the 2025 format allowed TMI students to create ‘presentations on subjects that are highly motivational’.  They showed ‘great confidence to record exciting and engaging presentations’.  ‘They smashed it’.

TMI President Kathryn Davis commended this year’s applicants for their submissions which were ‘of exceptional quality’ and comments:

‘Our judging panel was so impressed and inspired by the creativity displayed with the students demonstrating such a mature understanding and passion and enthusiasm for the sector. TMI works closely with our university partners and our awards are an important way for us to support students in their development giving them an opportunity to showcase their achievements to a wide audience.’

TMI is delighted that VisitEngland was part of our TMI Awards judging panel this year.  England Director, Andrew Stokes, comments:

‘VisitEngland is very pleased to support the 2025 TMI Student Awards.  Taking part in the judging panel enabled us to see the high quality of the applications and we warmly congratulate all the winners and finalists.’

TMI Tourism Student Inspiration Award 2025

The joint winners of the ‘TMI Tourism Student Inspiration Award 2025’ for undergraduate students studying on a TMI accredited tourism management course are:

Knight Sedhain

• Knight Sedhain, a third-year tourism management student at University College Birmingham (UCB). Knight delivered a passionate and innovative presentation showing real-world impact from concept to implementation based on his work placement with the Shropshire Hills National Landscape team. He demonstrated a mature understanding of sustainable tourism development, aligning his work to the Visitor Economy Strategy and understanding the need ‘to balance tourism, conservation and community benefit.’

  

  Mia Nicolson-Smith

• Mia Nicolson-Smith, a third-year tourism management student from the University of Lancashire. Mia delivered an outstanding presentation demonstrating her passion and enthusiasm for a career in tourism including the powerful strapline ‘Make the World your Workplace’.  She also explained the wide variety of opportunities in tourism drawing from her own work experience with the tour operator ‘Destinology’ and her use of AI in creating a campaign for Visit Lancashire.  Mia is an excellent advocate to champion studying and working in tourism, and the judges could not agree with her more: ‘working in tourism is more than a job, it’s a passport to personal and professional growth’.

Joint runners-up of the ‘TMI Tourism Student Inspiration Award 2025’ are:

• Aniek Bouwmeester, a final year distance learning student with Arden University. Aniek delivered a highly engaging and enthusiastic presentation for a low-cost social media campaign to attract a new visitor market to Bolivia. With effective use of Canva’s AI model and clever use of mobile phone imagery, she demonstrated great use of new technology and showcased a compelling and creative campaign using strategic storytelling, also effectively highlighting the need to ensure tourism is developed in a sustainable way.
• Ava Greening, has just graduated from York St John University with a first-class honours degree in tourism and destination management. Ava successfully showcased ‘The Key Outcomes & Tangible Benefits of My Internship Experience’ based on her business development internship with A J Hackett. The judges were impressed by the scope of her work which included undertaking market and destination research for Hong Kong and the Ocean Park theme park, as well as developing ideas for community engagement. She effectively demonstrated how she added value to both the business and the destination.  Judges were also impressed by her wish to use the presentation to inspire other students to ‘move beyond their comfort zone’.

TMI Simon Curtis Postgraduate Prize 2025

The winner of the ‘TMI Simon Curtis Postgraduate Prize 2025’ for postgraduate students studying on a TMI accredited tourism management course is:

Shilpa Sudheesh

• Shilpa Sudheesh, who has just completed her MSc International Tourism & Hospitality Management degree from Robert Gordon University Aberdeen. Shilpa delivered an excellent presentation ‘Aberdeen’s Festival Tourism: the unseen potential of the international student community’. She demonstrated creative thinking and suggested how the introduction of an app could connect students to city events, forging a clear understanding of the importance of community engagement. Judges were impressed with her data collection and taking the initiative to share her findings with Visit Aberdeenshire.

 All 3 award winners will receive a one-to-one professional mentoring session with a senior member of TMI as well as a complimentary place at the TMI Annual Convention hosted this year by the University of Lancashire on 29/30 October. They also have the opportunity to write a blog to showcase their project and the professional skills and experience they have gained, as well as one year’s associate membership of TMI.

Finally we would like to thank the many tourism organisations and the wider industry for their ongoing support of our students by offering meaningful placements and actively supporting research projects within their destinations.

To find out more about our TMI Awards email:  Joyce Cawthorpe: cpd@tmi.org.uk