Have you ever wondered
how "Kastanienbaum"
chestnut tree in English"
got its name?

Kastanienbaum

It is an unusal name even if you take into account the numbers of places named after trees. There is a story that answers where the name Kastanienbaum originates. Interestingly, for IMI the story concerns an act of hospitality


On an autumn evening in this area amid a terrible thunderstorm 2 foreigners were travelling through. Wet through the skin and feeling very cold, they searched for shelter. They came across a farmhouse and knocked on the door. The farmers wife took pity on them and invited them in, and prepared a meal for them and place to rest. The next morning with the storm abated the foreigners resumed their journey and thanks the farmers wife for her hospitality with a pair of chestnuts. The farmers wife planted the chestnuts in the ground and in the spring two young trees appeared and soon the whole peninsula of Kastanienbaum was covered in chestnut trees - hence the name.

Swiss middle age

It seems that this story happened in a late medival period, where it still was a time of great change around lake Lucerne with the opening up of the St Gothard Pass linking northern Switzerland with southern Switzerland and Italy. It was still an arduous journey and until the advent if the steam ferries and the arrival of tourists some six hundred years later travelers had to be rowed across the lake, sometimes using sails, a journey that took many hours. Those who wanted to save money for the ferry had to walk around the lake, and this may be what our mysterious chestnut bearing foreigners were trying to do. Since the pass was the most direct route north and south there would have neen more foreigners passing through the region than in earlier periods. The opening of the pass would not only have brought more trade into the area, but would have also enhanced Lucerne's strategic significance - hence the great walls around the city. The Austrians, under the Habsburg, wanted to control the region and their pressure led eventually to the formation of the Swiss Confederation. It was beside the lake in the Rütli meadow, that legend has it that it on August 1. 1291, representatives from the three forest cantons - Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden - met in secret to withstand Habsburg repression and to sign a pact of eternal mutual defence, thereby laying the foundations of the Swiss Confederation. Compiled by M Hitchcock

Lake Luzerne

 
When it all started in 1990
The International Hotel, Tourism and Culinary Management Institutes (IMI) is primarily a residential hotel and tourism school situated in Central Switzerland. Established in 1990, its three founding members all had considerable experience of the hotel industry and of running hotel schools in Ireland, Greece, Indonesia, Kenya, Malta and Switzerland.

Courses in Switzerland have traditionally been biased towards technical proficiency with little emphasis on management. The founders of IMI Mr Heinz Bürki, Mr Rudolf Fischer and Mr Tom Maher wished to bias the courses more towards a study of hospitality management. IMI originally offered three courses, a Certificate in Food and Beverage Management, a Diploma in Hotel Operational Management and Higher Diploma in Hotel and Tourism Management.

 

In 1993, the Postgraduate Diploma in Hotel and Tourism Management was developed allowing graduates of non-hospitality disciplines to follow a conversion course and obtain industrial experience. This was followed in 1997 by the development in conjunction with The Manchester Metropolitan University, UK of a BA degree course in International Hotel and Tourism Management and in 2001 with an MSc in International Tourism Management. In 2002, the Postgraduate Diploma was extended to include further study for an MBA, the first degree qualification to be offered and validated by IMI.

In 1995 the International Tourism Institute (later the International Tourism Institute, Switzerland) was founded and entered into a relationship whereby a BA Honours degree in International Tourism Management was offered, validated by the University of North London, UK. This relationship was terminated in 2002 and IMI/ITIS now works with Manchester Metropolitan University alone. A postgraduate diploma course similar to the IMI programme was also offered.

The School was founded in Hotel Waldstaetten, Weggis and as numbers grew, the School leased the Hotel National in Weggis and Hotel Acheregg in Stanstaad. Each site catered for one of the three years of the course. Due to the expansion of student numbers and the increase in the number of courses being offered by IMI, it was decided to consolidate the number of sites and IMI moved to a large campus at Kastanienbaum in August 1997. First year and postgraduate hotel management students remained based in Weggis until 2002 when Weggis was sold and operations concentrated at Kastanienbaum.

IMI's Board of Directors initially consisted of the founding members. Mr Tom Maher passed away in 1995 and Mr Carmel Fsadni represented his widow until 2000 when she disposed of her shares and he became a member of the Board of Directors.