Students in tourism are competitive internationally
Romania's hospitality industry has matured and is laying more emphasis on sustainability, high quality services and coming in line with EU standards
Ana-Maria Cononovici, 24.02.2026, 13:50
Romania’s participation in hospitality contests (HoReCa) has known a significant development of late, going form local contests to a notable presence on the international arena, especially in gastronomy and hotel service.
Staged on three sections, the national contest WorldSkills Romania Hospitality & Tourism 2026, has reached its fourth edition. The participants were 29 students from 12 field institutions in 4 Romanian counties. In Romania there are several high-schools, which are preparing the future tourism workers.
As the winners of the spring edition of Romania’s Tourism Fair have been awarded numerous prizes, we talked about the performances of the Romanian students with Larisa Ile, President and founder of Edu4Tourism, the Association of professors and mentors in tourism. What is the fourth edition of World Skills Hotel Reception and Housekeeping like?
Larisa Ile: “It has been devoted to students from technological and double-technological high-schools, it is a contest especially for trades. And Romania participates every year in international trade contests. This year in September we go to China with ten trades, including that of hotel receptionist, a competition, which involves four days of contest from morning till evening and students have to participate in several events, which simulate the activity of a receptionist in a five-star hotel, where the emphasis is on professionalism and excellence. There are economic high-schools, service and technological high-schools with one, two, three or even more classes of tourism, such as hotel services, travel agency or public food industry. These classes are real and through these international competitions we are promoting them so that they may also become attractive to children and parents alike.”
The competition has been staged by WorldSkills Romania and the Association of Professors and Mentors in Tourism “Edu4Tourism”, jointly with Cnit Tourism Education, the Federation of Hotel Industry in Romania, the Faculty of Business and Tourism, The Faculty of Economic Studies in Bucharest and the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, the Romanian-American University and the Polytechnic University in Bucharest.
Larisa Ile, President and founder of the Association of Professors and Mentors in Tourism, has told us more on the competition:
Larisa Ile: “The student, who won in 2024, participated in the World Championship of Lyon where we stayed at the same table with the other 21 world competitors. The same student, a year later at the same European competition won the medal for Excellence and now we can definitely sit at the table of the best in terms of hospitality. The winner last year has been invited to the world contest in Shanghai in September. And we like to be there together with the best, because Romania has hospitality talents and through these trades, students prove that we are where we should be!”
Larisa Ile has also told us about the competition’s fourth edition
Larisa Ile: “29 students participated in the competition’s three sections: hotel receptionist, travel agent, housekeeping. We have three sections but only one goes farther on, to an international event. We hope to get organized and go global with the other two sections as well. One of the students winning today will go to Japan in two years time.”
High-schools from Braşov, Ploieşti, Bucureşti, Sinaia and Timişoara have registered their participants for the aforementioned competition. Here is again Larisa Ile, at the microphone
Larisa Ile: “This experience is teaching children to tackle difficult tasks and even learn the lesson of modesty, they learn that we have to start from the lower levels to go to the top and we cannot do that overnight. It’s a lesson of competition, of resilience, perseverance, something that we cannot teach in schools but only practically experience here in these trade contests.”
Romania is also active in the High Performance Gastronomy contests, and its qualification for the Bocuse d’Or Europe 2026, due in Marseille is a historic event. The National team made up of Chef Vasilică Bejenaru, Liviu Preda and Andrei Fabian Lupoi, won the National Selection in Brasov in November last year.
Romania’s hospitality industry is awarding its excellence through several annual events: Romanian Hospitality Awards – a key project aimed at rewarding excellence; TopHotel Awards – the most important competition in Romania dedicated to the industry of hotels, tourism and hospitality, now at its 13th edition; The Romanian Pizza Challenge 2025 – staged within FoodService & Hospitality Expo; Romania Sushi Cup (2025) and the National Championship of Neapolitan Pizza in Oradea, at its second edition in June last year.
These events are proof of the fact that the hospitality sector has matured, with a higher emphasis on sustainability, providing services of high quality and coming in line with the European standards.
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