Catalan President Puigdemont highlights the importance of CETT-UB in the tourism excellence of Catalonia

During the opening ceremony, with 450 attendants, Carles Puigdemont put emphasis on the role of CETT regarding the tourism excellence in Catalonia and said this doesn't result from the fact that "Catalonia is a world power in tourism but it comes thanks to such a campus, which trains professionals for the future, people who are prepared to compete and face the new tourist demands".

With an investment of 6,5M euros -60% of it coming from own funds-, CETT has widen its facilities with 1.600m2 more, and has rebuild more than 2.000 m2. This action has consisted on creating seventeen new rooms and rebuilding existing areas with the aim of having polyvalent spaces for services and work that favour a dynamic and shared experience outside the classrooms.

In his speech, Miquel Alsius, President of the CETT Group, put emphasis on this work, which “it is not only a physical transformation but also a step towards the same learning and relation dynamics between people who are part of this academic, professional and institutional ecosystem”.

Joan Elias, Rector of the University of Barcelona, highlighted that “the University of Barcelona, which has recognized tourism as a strategic sector for more than twenty years, bets on a quality education and research, together with CETT”. In these lines, Elias has remembered the agreement both institutions signed last year to train Doctors in Tourism.

Other attendants were Agustí Colom, Councilor for Enterprise and Tourism of the Barcelona City Council; and Octavi Bono, Director-General for Tourism at the Generalitat de Catalunya, among others.

New areas and rooms

There are eight rooms out of the seventeen new ones, located at floor B0 under the main garden of the school, especially equipped with leading technology to promote learning and practice. There is a room for cooking demonstration, with specific machinery to create a grand cuisine gastronomic offering; three new rooms for sommeliers, equipped with specific light for the study and observation of wine; a gastronomic are with two big working tables made out of aluminium and ceramics laminated materials which allow induction cooking on the surface; a sensory room, which has the necessary climate and light conditions for a neutral observation of products and food; and two techno-culinary rooms, with high-generation industrial kitchens used for cooking practices and demonstration. The other rooms are added to the already existing rooms of the center.

The new Eidos area (the term Plato used for the world of ideas) is to promote creativity. Built with slate walls and located at the Centro de Recursos Gaspar Espuña, this area allows preparing oral presentations and provides space for meetings and group dynamics. This new room responds to the aim of strengthening the additional value of CETT-UB of promoting the experience and learning. With this idea, Forum, Jardinet del Forum and la Plaça, are other spaces encouraging creativity and cultural exchange for the students.

This makeover has covered several floors of the building and spaces of the campus with the aim of creating a more accessible and polyvalent school and reinforce the world projection of the campus, the only one in Spain covering studies of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy in the same area.