Blended Intensive Programmes in Tourism Education: Experiences on the go

Abstract

This paper describes two blended intensive programmes (BIPs) involving wine, both as a tourism and a cultural heritage asset. Having taken place in Portugal, these programmes brought together students from Romania, Germany, Poland, and Spain and included a wide range of activities, whose main goal was to encourage participants to develop innovative concepts related to wine culture and wine tourism development. Focussing on the design, implementation, monitoring and outputs of the programmes, the authors take on reflective approach, which can be framed within the scope of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), highlighting strategies that can potentially improve students’ learning experience in tourism and wine education. Considering the programmes addressed two complementary thematic strands, specifically, the perceptions and engagement of younger cohorts, particularly Generation Z and Generation Alpha, towards wine culture and how it might be reinterpreted, as well as tourism experience design, the paper reviews existing literature, providing examples which support the adoption of international immersive experiences. Moreover, it describes goals, learning outcomes, key outputs and learning tasks, putting forwards the tools and methods used with and by the students, including digital tools, such as Padlet, as well as multisensory observation diaries, offering insights into their potential, particularly when it comes to promoting experiential learning in a multi- and intercultural setting.