International Tourism Management Students Visit Athens!

Second year BA Honours International Tourism Management students recently returned from their overseas field trip to Athens. The trip is part of the Researching People and Places module, which allows students the opportunity to practice and improve their data collection and analysis skills. Alongside this, students collect questionnaires, interviews, and observations, which can help to build confidence as well as research skills.

Students explored heritage preservation and representation while visiting the Acropolis, and the politics of heritage at the New Acropolis Museum. Students could compare and contrast these issues when they visited Corinth, and they explored domestic tourism as a viable development option when they visited the Island of Aegina. Dr Heather Jeffrey, Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University Dubai, led the international trip and was impressed by the student engagement in field work, commenting  "I think research really comes alive when the students experience field work for themselves, and certainly that has been the case on this trip".

Lulu Baddar, Senior Lecturer and Campus Programme Coordinator for the International Tourism Management Programme, also accompanied the students on the trip and commented “these trips help the students to broaden their horizons, be independent, take responsibility for their work and learn about other cultures. All of these aspects contribute to their learning experience, which in the future they could reflect on in their working lives”.

Maryam Farouk, second year International Tourism Management student added “visiting and staying in Athens has definitely given me an incredible travelling experience. From walking up the steep roads towards the highest point in Athens, Mount Lycabettus, to being blown away by the powerful winds at the Corinth Canal, and to riding to the island of Aegeana on a cruise ship, everything about the trip was phenomenal. Alongside the beautiful views, the trip was also so educational thanks to our tour guide who left out no detail about the history, current events and culture of Greece”.

Find out more about our Tourism and Hospitality programmes at www.mdx.ac.ae/courses.