Communications Department
Valledupar, Riohacha, Cabo de la Vela, Punta Gallinas, Barranquilla, Santa Marta and Cartagena were the sites visited by the students of the Professional in Tourism academic program of the UIS Socorro Campus, who during this tour had among their objectives to identify, evaluate and recommend the different tourist services offered by these destinations.
As part of the subject “National and International Excursions”, the students must carry out pedagogical field trips that allow them to apply and validate in a practical way the knowledge acquired in the subject of the new trends in tourism. In this way, they develop competencies and tools to evaluate tourism services in the environments where the sector’s activities take place, such as protected areas, cultural centers, monuments and other activities related to the tourism system.
To know, understand, interact and produce through the application of contents, were the activities proposed during this academic outing, in which students accompanied by the professors of the area were able to observe through each tour, heritage, culture, ecosystems, accommodation and food services, and explore the environment through the population, routes and distance of these, infrastructure and tourism offerings.
The eighth semester students of the Professional in Tourism academic program at the Socorro Campus recognize in this type of pedagogical outings an opportunity to live, in a more real and close way, everything they have learned during their professional training period.
“We had an enriching experience during the course of the excursion, we got to know new cultures, communities, territories and customs. These are experiences that provide us with great personal and professional knowledge and make us visualize our territory as a great tourism opportunity, taking into account the most developed destinations,” said Silvia Julieth Carreño Ayala, student of the Tourism program at the UIS Socorro Campus.
Student Jesús Manuel Pico stated that “this type of activity is fundamental in the process of recognition of the tourism sector in the national environment. Both theory and practice are necessary to have a more accurate knowledge of how tourism works and the integration of the different local actors in the territories.”
“In this pedagogical outing we were able to articulate all the subjects we have seen during the career, all the tools learned in class, such as heritage recognition, ecotourism, sightseeing; we had the opportunity to identify the most important tourist destinations in Colombia, which allowed us to put into practice all our knowledge,” commented Naila Fernanda Perez Malaver, student of the Tourism program at the UIS Socorro Campus. “The pedagogical outings are the organic complement to the knowledge acquired in the classroom. In this Caribbean circuit, there was an insertion in culture, folklore, ethnography, sun and beach tourism, nature, among others, which were vital in this tour. As future professionals the task is arduous, because it is not only to practice, it is to be part of the development process of these communities and take tourism to another scale”, emphasized Kleisder Sanchez, student of the Tourism program at the UIS Socorro Campus.