Through my participation in this program, I was able to expand my perspective on tourism beyond what I had learned in the classroom. First, in the pre-program lectures, I picked the topic I was most interested in: “experiences that people really find appealing” and prepared ways to link that to the fieldwork. After this, I took part in the training in the field. Spain and Italy in particular, have, within their long history, a plethora of man-made heritage, and with that just as many kinds of appeal. On the other hand, I learned about provincial cities, that are not as well-known as the big cities. The bigger cities have the appeal of a long history, while the provincial cities have the appeal of the shape of a nation built by its people over a long time. Even though the fieldwork was a short 2 weeks, I was able to learn about tourism from multiple angles, and discover numerous kinds of appeal that I would not be able to have known through books or the internet. I want to make the most of the appeal-filled experiences that I gained through this fieldwork, and connect them to my future studies!
