engleski

Tourism education on the move: Studying, touring and socializing in the "Academy at Sea"

In the paper the authors present the first research results conducted on a sample of 84 international tourism students who participated in a unique eight-day educational voyage on four motor sailing boats in Croatia in May 2015. Students from universities from all over the world were involved in 10th ITHAS - International Tourism and Hospitality Academy at Sea in “live laboratory”. The objectives of this intensive educational module are to experience tourism through theoretical and practical education, to facilitate cultural exchange among the students of participating countries and to indicate the positive and negative aspects of tourism development in terms of ethics and the code of conduct, among many others. Students from 30 different countries were practicing three simultaneous roles: the role of students of tourism, the role of future tourism experts and the role of tourists. The objective of the research is to establish whether there are differences in students’ pre- and post-ITHAS experiences which relate to intercultural exchange, learning, relationships, sightseeing, meeting new people and other. The final outcome of the research is to apply Cresswell’s idea (2010) of “politics of mobility” to this research and to analyze at which point the national identity transforms itself into multinational identity created on each particular boat. Two basic presumptions of ITHAS are rhythm and route. Students interact in multicultural environment, expanding their mindsets into new directions while simultaneously changing their physical position regardless of their individual movement. The research aims at examining whether the new environment changes the way students perceive their learning outcome and do the interactions with local community have any influence on their experience in the destination. The dynamic route implies constant changes during the sail and therefore one of the objectives is to test whether it encourages students to socialize more quickly and to create small interethnic groups which enable them to create stronger bonds and to transfer knowledge and experiences in a more efficient manner.

experiential learning; intensive studying; socializing; students' expectations

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