ISTHIA
Institut Supérieur du Tourisme de l'hôtellerie et de l'Alimentation
By Juliane Boistel, on 01/17/2025
The « MARC COMBES Challenge » :
Three Days of Strategic Challenges and Multicultural Exchange for Master’s Students in Tourism and Hospitality at ISTHIA-UT2J.
January 14-16, 2025 – ISTHIA (Higher Institute of Tourism, Hospitality, and Food Studies) is hosting the 37th edition of the “MARC COMBES Challenge” this week on the Mirail campus in Toulouse. Established in the 1990s by Marc Combes, a former Economics and Management professor at CETIA, this event combines strategic planning exercises, innovative teaching methods, and intercultural interactions in a context of a serious game focused on developing a virtual business.
Over three days, more than 80 second-year Master’s students from ISTHIA—enrolled in five courses (MIT, MHR, TD, TIC ADTT, and THFS)—will work on a challenge: creating, developing, and managing a restaurant in a competitive virtual environment, entirely in English. Divided into 12 multidisciplinary teams, each group will include students from all five courses. Together, they will design and operate their establishment, covering tasks such as choosing a market segment and marketing concept, developing a growth strategy, managing human resources, and handling financial and operational aspects.
The performance of the virtual businesses will depend on the quality of the teams’ strategic choices. Each decision will affect their market share in the virtual environment. To guide them, three faculty members—Paul Pichon and Denis Borie, both marketing lecturers, and Moufida Thouiri, an economics and management instructor—will act as advisors, virtual bankers, and evaluators under the banner of the Business Center. Their role is to assist teams in adjusting their strategies and evaluating the relevance of their decisions.
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Over the years, the “MARC COMBES Challenge” has continued to adapt. Its latest change involves the complete digitization of the game. Now hosted on the IRIS platform of the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès (UT2J), all resources and instructions are provided digitally, aligning the challenge with current technological practices.
This event is an important step in the students’ academic path, marking their transition to the final semester before internships and the start of their professional careers. Former participants often reflect on the experience, highlighting the intensity of teamwork, the intercultural exchanges, and the connections built during the challenge.
The “MARC COMBES Challenge” continues to be a key part of the Master’s program at ISTHIA, providing students with a structured, practical experience to prepare them for their professional futures.
ISTHIA
Site de Toulouse
Campus du Mirail
5 Allées Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 09
05 61 50 23 68
Site de Foix
Centre Universitaire de l'Ariège Robert Naudi
4 Rue Raoul Lafagette, 09000 Foix
Plan du site de Foix
05 61 02 19 74
Site de Cahors
Centre Universitaire Maurice Faure
273 Av. Henri Martin, 46000 Cahors
05 65 23 46 04