The juxtaposition of the sea and mountains makes for an ideal travel destination anywhere in the world. But in Abruzzo, Italy, this natural beauty is combined with world-class cuisine and wine, and a rich historical and cultural context.
During the summer fourteen students from The George Washington University (GWU) traveled to Abruzzo for a two-week consulting project conducted in collaboration with the local D'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara and DestiMed, an initiative of the IUCNCenter for Mediterranean Cooperation, which is a nonprofit working to promote sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean.
As Seleni Matus, Executive Director of GWU's International Institute of Tourism Studies explains, "the summer practicum provides Masters of Tourism Administration students with a unique opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge and to see for themselves the actual challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable tourism." Matus, who organized and led the trip, has taken GWU students to Cuba, Mexico and Indonesia during prior years.
The student-consultants were paired with three local Italian students and tasked with researching the region's tourism landscape. Their primary focus was on developing ecotourism-related products and services, exploring market opportunities and evaluating the local and national governance structure in terms of tourism.
Presentations from area experts and professors, one-on-one interviews, and site visits to local attractions—including several national parks—provided students with an understanding of and insights into this relatively unknown part of Europe.
Fred Baldassaro, a second-year Masters of Tourism Administration candidate, summed up the experience this way: “Abruzzo gave us a chance to put all of our education and theory into practice through real-world encounters and experiences. The project also allowed us to contribute to a region that is using tourism for economic development and improving the lives of people living there.”
The students prepared for the project during a month-long class that provided a deep-dive into the general consulting process and included desktop research on the history of tourism in Abruzzo. Perhaps most importantly, the classroom preparation provided students with the confidence to successfully deliver on a project in an unfamiliar area and outside of their comfort zones.
On site, the consulting project began with a two-day seminar at the D'Annunzio University in Chieti and featured speakers from the region, including Gran Sasso National park officials and representatives of the the Italian National Institute of Statistics. Site visits brought classroom research to life and into focus. Yet it was the dozens of interviews with Abruzzo’s tourism stakeholders — mayors, museum curators, park rangers, tour guides professors, hoteliers and restaurant owners— that provided the most useful insights.
Following the interviews and field research, the students synthesized all of the information they gathered and assembled a presentation for local stakeholders— which was covered by local and national TV news-outlets—and a final consulting report that included recommendations for ushering into the region a new generation of sustainable travel.
