Dear all,

As far as some of you might already be concerned, I am located since almost 2 years now in Germany. After being rewarded with a full scholarship opportunity from Epoka University, I decided to transfer my studies at the beautiful, riverside city of Mainz. Of course, the beginning was a bit difficult, but the University of Applied Sciences made our transferring process very smooth and easy. While I continued my studies, I was also presented of the great range of opportunities that were accessible out there for every student. Therefore, last year in this period, I became part of the double degree competition for international students, set by Consortium of International Double Degrees and Mainz University of Applied Sciences. I received the second price from this competition.

Afterwards, I decided to work on my master thesis and the topic where I decided to focus was ``Tourism in Albania: present challenges and future opportunities. `` On this topic I worked more closely with the framework of consumer behaviour and also brand image. The focus of the thesis was to explain the situation of tourism market in Albania and also in finding ways of improvements regarding this sector. Then, a survey was conducted with 220 participants located in Germany and a further SPSS analysis was done in order to explain the results of the study. The results demonstrated that Albania has shown continuous progress in the tourism sector, but still there are many challenges on the way that need to be addressed by public and private entities. Even though that the result showed a promising number of tourists and interest towards this destination, still Albanian image abroad remains a bit in shadows.

Recently, I found out about the OTP Bank price being offered upon the conduction of the research paper ``Future of tourism in Albania``. Since this topic was very similar to the one that I had just worked on, then I decided to join this competition. After my paper was successfully accepted, I had to present my findings in front of the jury. This was a bit difficult, because the event was taking place in person, but OTP Bank did a great job in arranging a remote session for me. After some days, I received the result that I was selected from the jury and would be awarded with the third price. Later on, I had to defend the paper again in front of the general director of the bank and be awarded (virtually) with a price and an internship opportunity.

As for that, I want to thank Epoka University for creating a very strong basis towards my educational and career development. Also, I thank OTP Bank for their assistance throughout this journey and I want to encourage everyone to participate in these types of competitions. Only this way you can put into practice the knowledge generated through university and also be given many opportunities for your future career. And remember that what doesn’t challenge us, doesn’t change us!