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 DOI: 10.1177/0273475307306886

2007 29: 210Journal of Marketing EducationStephen K. Koernig

Guidelines for First-Time FacultyPlanning, Organizing, and Conducting a 2-Week Study Abroad Trip for Undergraduate Students:

  

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This article provides specific recommendations to help fac-ulty members organize, plan, and conduct a short-termoverseas study tour. Specifically, strategies are presented tohelp with managing student anxiety in the pretrip sessions,acclimating the students to their new environment in theearly part of the trip, balancing academic content with cul-tural activities, selecting types of learning activities, andfacilitating a student exchange with a local university. A sec-ondary goal of this article is to discuss common on-the-ground problems that the faculty leader may face in the hostcountry. Strategies are presented to help the faculty leaderrespond to these problems (or prevent them from occurringin the first place).

Keywords: study abroad; company tours; learning activities;cultural activities; rapport

There is a flickering spark in us all which, if struck at justthe right age . . . can light the rest of our lives, elevating ourideals, deepening our tolerance and sharpening our appetitefor knowledge about the rest of the world. Educational andcultural exchanges . . . provide a perfect opportunity for thisprecious spark to grow, making us more sensitive and wiserinternational citizens.

—Ronald Reagan

International knowledge and experience have becomeincreasingly important for students in today’s global econ-omy (Open Doors, 2006). The Association to AdvanceCollegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) requirement of aninternational focus for the business curricula in its accredi-tation standards underscores the importance of this for busi-ness and marketing students. As a result, many universitieshave intensified their efforts to expose students to other cul-tures. Currently, 60% of all 4-year institutions provide stu-dents with an opportunity to study abroad (Marklein, 1999).

The number of students who take advantage of the oppor-tunity to study abroad is rapidly increasing. In the 2004-2005 academic year, a total of 205,983 U.S. students studied

in a foreign country (an increase of 7.7% from the previousyear), and over the past 8 years the number of students study-ing abroad has doubled (Open Doors, 2006). WesternEuropean countries dominate as the preferred choice for stu-dents, with the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and Franceaccounting for more than 45% of the destinations of choice ofAmerican students (Open Doors, 2006). Although Europeancountries have long been the most popular locations in whichto study abroad, students are increasingly choosing more geo-graphically diverse destinations. In fact, since the mid-1980s,the proportion of students studying in Europe has decreased by15%, but the number of students studying abroad in LatinAmerica has doubled in the same time period to 15.3% (OpenDoors, 2006). Non–Western countries are also becoming espe-cially popular. For example, the number of students visitingChina increased 35% over the past year, and it now ranks asthe eighth most popular destination (Open Doors, 2006).

Experts agree that one cause for the dramatic increase in thenumber of students who study abroad is the availability ofshorter and less expensive programs (Marklein, 1999).According to the Association of International Educators, therehas been a 50% increase in the number of students who chooseshort duration study abroad programs. Recent figures indicatethat 56% of American students who study abroad do so over theshort term, including summer break, winter break, or other pro-grams less than a full semester (Open Doors, 2006).

Developing, planning, and executing a study abroad touris a difficult and time-consuming venture for faculty. Themajor logistical considerations for planning a study abroad

Planning, Organizing, and Conducting a2-Week Study Abroad Trip for Undergraduate Students:

Guidelines for First-Time Faculty

Stephen K. Koernig

210

Stephen K. Koernig, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago), is an assistantprofessor at DePaul University. His research interests include the physicalenvironment of service firms, e-commerce advertising, and the gay market.His research has been published in academic journals including Journal ofAdvertising and Psychology & Marketing. The author thanks the guest edi-tor, Terri Barr, and the two anonymous JME reviewers for their helpfulcomments on previous versions of this article.

Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 29 No. 3, December 2007 210-217DOI: 10.1177/0273475307306886© 2007 Sage Publications

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JOURNAL OF MARKETING EDUCATION 211

tour that have been discussed in the literature include pric-ing the tour (Gordon & Smith, 1992), airline and hotel selec-tion (Gordon & Smith, 1992), and scheduling tours in onecity or multiple cities (Brokaw, 1996). The pros and cons ofdifferent in-country learning activities as they relate to tourlocation, time spent on the tour, and course credit have alsoreceived attention in the literature (Duke, 2000). Gordon andSmith (1992) presented a detailed itinerary of tour activities,but they offered no guidance on what worked well and whatdid not. Generally, an in-depth discussion of the more tacti-cal considerations of planning and organizing a studyabroad tour is absent from the literature.

Based on student feedback from previous study abroadtours (see Table 1) as well as the experience of the author,this article expands on the previous research by discussingstrategies to help the faculty leader plan, organize, andconduct a short-term study abroad trip. Specifically, strate-gies are presented to help manage student anxiety in thepretrip sessions, acclimate the student to his or her newenvironment in the early part of the trip, balance academiccontent with cultural activities, select types of learningactivities, and facilitate a student exchange with a localuniversity. Although meant as a roadmap for the first-timefaculty member planning a study abroad tour, this articlemay also help the seasoned veteran fine-tune his or herexisting study tour.

A secondary goal of this article is to discuss commonon-the-ground problems that the faculty leader may facein the host country. Although Gordon and Smith (1992)briefly listed a few potential problems, these are generallynot discussed in the literature, and no guidance is offeredas to how to respond to these issues. This article fills thisgap by presenting important tactical problems regardingday-to-day logistics of the study tour and offering strate-gies to respond to these problems (or prevent them fromoccurring in the first place).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The strategies offered in this article are a result of expe-rience from planning, organizing, and conducting a short-term (10 days to 2 weeks in duration) study abroad course.The primary objective of such a course is generally to helpstudents develop an understanding of the differences inbusiness practices between U.S. and foreign companies inrelation to their cultural, political, economic, social, andtechnological environments. Another objective could be forstudents to develop a better understanding of a different cul-ture through living in and experiencing day-to-day life in aforeign country.

The course described here is open to all undergraduate stu-dents and is capped at 20 students. It consists of two parts. Thefirst part includes four classroom sessions (3 hours each; onceper week) that take place prior to the trip to discuss the

culture, business environment, and academic focus of the trip.One posttrip meeting is also held to reinforce how the tripachieved the learning objectives. The second part of theseminar consists of the in-country portion, which includesscheduled company tours and visits to places of interestfrom a cultural and historical perspective.

PREDEPARTURE PLANNING AND ORGANIZING

The following section details five major planning andteaching-related issues that can be used to help facultymembers organize, plan, and conduct an overseas study tour.

1. Facilitating Group Interaction and AnxietyReduction in Pretrip Meetings

Despite their importance, a discussion of what should beincluded in pretrip class sessions has been largely ignored inthe literature. Duke (2000) focused exclusively on the touractivities within the host country, and Gordon and Smith(1992) limited their discussion of pretrip class sessions tobrief examples of what could be included (e.g., videos/presentations from locals from the country, review of an inter-national textbook, and discussion of possible companies thatstudents can visit). Brokaw (1996) discussed pretrip activitiessuch as using maps and library research to learn about the geog-raphy, history, transportation, and local businesses.

In addition to the aforementioned, pretrip meetings arean important vehicle that faculty leaders can use to reduce

TABLE 1STUDENT EVALUATIONS FROM STUDY

ABROAD TOURS

%

Recurring student comments about what theyliked the best includeda

Free time to explore the city on their own 92Using local transportation instead of tour buses 87Guided tour and dinner with alumnus 80Factory tours 74Learning how to get around on public transportation 73Balance of company visits and cultural activities 63Learning about what the trip entails (pretrip) 59Learning about the culture in pretrip sessions 56

Recurring student comments about what theyliked the least includeda

Company tour on the first day 65b

Too many company tours 58Final paper requirement 55Hard time getting to know other students 49

before the tripToo much pretrip academic focus 31Not enough cities visited 28Too many cities visited 23

a. Percentage of students mentioning the topic.b. Responses limited to one class.

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anxiety and uncertainty in students. Gordon and Smith(1992) stated that pretrip meetings “help build a spirit whichcan be useful when stresses and tensions increase during theoverseas portion of the trip” (p. 49). Pretrip classes allow stu-dents to learn from each other and promote student interactionbefore leaving for the foreign country (Brokaw, 1996), but theprevious literature does not address how to promote this inter-action. This is an important omission to address as under-graduate students feel like too much time is spent on theacademic portion of the study tour at the expense of getting toknow one another in these classes (Table 1).

It is important to facilitate student interaction with anumber of their classmates so that they feel comfortableinteracting with more than just one or two students. In-classexercises can help the students meet their classmates andreduce anxiety about the trip. Some class activities that canhelp facilitate student “bonding” as well as acclimate thestudents to the culture to which they will be exposed mightinclude:

• student interviews of one (or two) other classmates and an oralintroduction of that person to the rest of the class,

• two- or three-person team oral presentations of one aspect ofthe culture of the country,

• two- or three-person team oral presentations about the historyand marketing strategies of one of the companies to be visited,

• a discussion of each student’s anticipated favorite company andcultural event,

• a discussion of previous experiences traveling or living overseas.

These class sessions not only serve as a way for the studentsto learn about each other but also for the faculty member to getto know the students before leaving on the trip. Research hasdemonstrated that as the time spent between people increases,stronger rapport is more likely to occur (Davies & Prince,2005). Rapport between faculty and students leads to greatertrust, which is important because the faculty tour leader is “forat least some period of time, the students’ sole source of infor-mation and reassurance” (Brokaw, 1996, p. 92). Additionalbenefits of student–faculty rapport are enhanced student learn-ing and willingness to learn (Huff, Cooper, & Jones, 2002;McCombs & Whistler, 1997).

In light of the aforementioned, multiple pretrip class ses-sions are preferable to the single pretrip session advocatedby Schuster (1993) to maximize the rapport among all par-ticipants. Research has demonstrated that three main factorsare important in building rapport—approach factors, per-sonality factors, and homophily (Granitz, Harich, &Koernig, 2007)—and faculty leaders should take an activerole in managing these three factors to build rapport.

Approach factors refer to the physical and psychologicalapproachability of the professor (Faranda & Clarke, 2004).Frequent communication and accessibility (being availablethrough office hours, phone, and e-mail) are important tohelp the student feel comfortable asking questions of and

seeking guidance from the faculty tour leader. Approachabilitycan also be increased by sending frequent predeparture e-mailmessages to students that count down the number of daysremaining before the trip, present current weather conditions inthe foreign country, and include other fun “teasers” about thetrip (e.g., historical facts, information about companies that willbe visited, etc.).

Personality factors refer to respect, caring, and empathytoward the students (Granitz et al., 2007). Viewing studentsas individuals with unique personal situations and interestswill help build rapport through this factor. For example, thetour leader can ask questions such as “How comfortable doyou feel traveling to a foreign country?” and “What areother concerns you have about traveling to a foreign coun-try?” The responses to these questions will help the facultyleader to understand each student as an individual. They willalso help the faculty member to address and manage theanxiety of students, and the discussion of these issues willhelp demonstrate caring for the students. This is importantas a majority of students report a high degree of anxietybefore leaving on a tour. The top three concerns of under-graduate students typically include (a) not being able tocommunicate in the host country language, (b) anti-American sentiments of residents of the host country, and(c) not having enough time to fully experience the culture ofthe country. By discussing what to expect and how to over-come these fears, the students will be better prepared to visitthe foreign country and will feel more at ease doing so.

Homophily is the principle that individuals bond with andtrust similar individuals. Faculty leaders could increase thedegree of homophily by explicitly sharing commonality withstudents (e.g., let them know about your personal and profes-sional background; share your own fears, anxieties, and tri-umphs from your early travel experiences; speak their language;share your values, attitudes, and beliefs). I tell my students aboutmy first trip outside of the United States and share with them theconcerns that I had, the problems I encountered, and (mostimportant) how it changed my life in a very positive way.

The class sessions also help the faculty member gaugestudent interest in the specific activities scheduled for thetrip and may allow for some adjustment of the study tourbased on the needs and wants of the particular group of stu-dents. An initial exercise that could address these issues is toask the students the following questions: “What do youexpect to get out of this seminar?” and “Ideally, what wouldyou want it to include?” The responses to these questionsallow the faculty member to make last-minute adjustmentsto the trip so that it can be customized based on the uniqueneeds of the students in the particular course. This also pro-vides a starting point to manage the expectations of the stu-dents. Some students may view the trip as more of avacation than an academic course, and the faculty membershould make it clear early on that the primary purpose forthe tour is academic in nature.

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2. The First Day: Group Walking Tour andUsing Local Transportation

The first day of the study tour is often the most challeng-ing. Students and the tour leader are jetlagged, in need of achange of clothes, and generally exhausted from the longflight. However, everyone is also excited to start the adven-ture. Before this adventure begins, the group will need tocheck into their hotel, dormitory, or hostel to deposit theirluggage. Arrival at the study abroad city should be timed forthe late morning or early afternoon. If the group arrives tooearly, it is possible that the facility might not be prepared tolodge the entire group at once. I typically give studentsabout 2 hours to get settled in their rooms and to freshen upand change clothes. I discourage the students from nappingduring this time to minimize the impact of jetlag. In fact, thefirst day is structured so that the students are constantly onthe go and do not have time to sleep until bedtime. I havefound that the best way to accomplish this is through a walk-ing tour of the city.

A walking tour also serves two other purposes. First, it is aneffective strategy to help the students acclimate to their newenvironment. On the walking tour, I point out (and we visit)some of the major cultural sites. I have each student follow ourpath on a city map so that they develop a feel for the layout ofthe city and to help the student gain confidence in gettingaround on his or her own. Discussion of the sites of interestalso is intended to reinforce what the students learned aboutthe culture of the country in the pretrip classes.

If the faculty leader is not familiar with the city, companiescan be found in many cities that provide walking tours withprofessional tour guides for a very reasonable cost. Examplesof cities with companies conducting these tours include Berlin(http://www.berlinwalks.de/), Lisbon (http://www.lisbonwalks.com/general_info.html), London (http://www.walks.com/),and Tokyo (http://5.pro.tok2.com/~tcgc/english/). The maintrain station in the city often has information centers that canhelp the faculty member locate a professional tour guide.Alternatively, if the faculty leader has any contacts in the city, acity resident could conduct this tour. On all of my trips, I nowemploy the help of the university alumni association to locatean alumnus who might agree to take my group on a city tour.This has been extremely effective. The alumnus enjoys remi-niscing about his or her alma matter with current students, andthe students are able to learn about the culture and history of thecity from a native of the country.

The second function of the walking tour is to teach thestudents how to use public transportation such as the subwayand buses. Gordon and Smith (1992) stated that public trans-portation helps to immerse the students in the new culture aswell as allowing students to “conduct small transactions,calculate foreign exchange equivalents, and become partici-pants in the local economy” (p. 49). Using public trans-portation allows the group to see more of the city, andstudents have indicated that this is much preferable to taking

a tour bus. More important, forcing students to use localtransportation has been an extremely successful method atinstilling confidence in the students’ ability to navigate aforeign city (Table 1). This serves them well when they ven-ture out on their own. In addition, students often return fromthe study tour and begin planning a subsequent trip to a for-eign country with newfound confidence in their ability to getaround as a result of their experience on the study tour.

In conjunction with (or instead of) a walking tour of thecity, a scavenger hunt is also an effective way to get studentscomfortable in their new surroundings and with using publictransportation. On the scavenger hunt, students are required touse the subway and/or buses to find specific cultural sites (e.g.,churches, government buildings, historical monuments, muse-ums, etc.). A modification of the scavenger hunt is a treasurehunt. Instead of seeking out cultural sites, in the treasure huntstudents search for common, everyday products and recordinformation about the store selling the product, the location ofthe product within the store, the price of the product, and thebrand of the product (Duke, 2000). In addition to acclimatingstudents to their new surroundings and with the public trans-portation system, the treasure hunt helps students learn aboutthe day-to-day shopping activities of people in the new culture.

At the end of the first day, the students should have a goodworking knowledge of the city layout and a basic understand-ing of how to get around the city on their own. A good way toend the first day is with an early group dinner during which theevents scheduled for the next day are discussed. The guest tourleader and any university alumni (if living in the area and avail-able) might also be a nice addition to the dinner. The alumnuswho helps with my tours was born and raised (and now lives)in one of the cities we visit. Students have commented that hisguided tour and a group dinner afterwards was one of the high-lights of the trip (Table 1). After dinner, it is important to geteveryone to bed relatively early so that they are fresh for thefirst full day of the tour.

3. Balancing Academic Content WithCultural Activities

Duke (2000) discussed the effectiveness of differentlearning activities (tests and lectures, company visits, jour-nal writing, treasure hunts, written projects, and simula-tions) as they relate to the choice of location, tour duration,and tour integration with course credit. Although exams, stu-dent presentations, and written projects are desirable as apart of the academic requirements of the class, they are bet-ter suited for the pretrip (or posttrip) class sessions. Examsare stressful for students and detract from time that could bespent learning about the new culture. Written projects andsimulations will also take time away from other activities,and it may be difficult to find resources for the students tocomplete these projects (Duke, 2000).

A heavy academic focus in the pretrip class sessions allows formore time to be spent on company visits and cultural activities in

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the new culture instead of spending time in the classroom. Formy study abroad course, students are required to attend fourpretrip class sessions that are 3 hours in duration. In these classsessions, I present lectures on topics related to the academicfocus of the study tour. Students are tested on this materialthrough weekly quizzes and are required to make presenta-tions about class topics as they relate to the country and com-panies to be visited. Once in the foreign city, I limit theacademic content to company tours and related discussions.We visit companies to learn about the company and their busi-ness strategy and then meet for approximately an hour in aninformal setting where we discuss how the company’s strategyrelates to the pretrip class lectures. The final academic require-ment for the course is a 10- to 15-page paper in which the stu-dent analyzes the marketing strategies of the companies thatwe visited and discusses the impact of environmental factorson these firms.

It is a delicate task for the faculty leader to balance thedemands of the academic portion of the trip with the culturalcomponent of the tour. Gordon and Smith (1992) andSchuster (1993) advocated study tours that make heavy useof group time with numerous speakers and factory visits.Brokaw (1996) presented an alternative method for a studytour with limited company visits and group meetings limitedto only 1 hour per day. This approach allows the students asignificant amount of time on their own to explore the newculture but also reduces the academic rigor of the course.

I have found that a balance between these strategiesworks the best. I strive for approximately 40% of the trip toinclude company tours and other related academic activities,40% for structured cultural activities, and 20% for studentsto explore on their own. This balance of academic and cul-tural activities came about through trial and error. My earlyapproach was to schedule two company tours per day and tolimit the group visits to cultural sites. However, a major crit-icism of the students of my early trips was that the largenumber of company visits was overwhelming (see Table 1).I have found that one company tour per day provides a suf-ficient level of rigor while allowing enough time to includea group activity to experience the culture of the country.

Regardless of the country visited, there will be an abun-dance of cultural activities from which to pick for the studytour. To narrow down the choices, before leaving for the tripI require students to purchase a country guide (Fodor’s,TimeOut, Lonely Planet, etc.) and ask them to read about thecities we will be visiting and to make a list of five culturalsites they would like to visit. I also ask them to include the“one thing” they would want to do to make their trip com-plete. Sometimes these lists overlap with what I havealready planned; however, I leave open time slots in theschedule to adjust the itinerary based on this feedback. If Icannot incorporate these ideas into the trip, I try to see ifthere are similar interests among the students and try to helpthem coordinate side trips to these locations.

In the spirit of Brokaw’s (1996) method of allowing stu-dents a great degree of freedom to explore the city on theirown, for a 2-week study abroad trip I provide students withat least one or two “free days” (typically a Saturday and/orSunday) to enjoy the city on their own. I also encourage stu-dents to explore the city after we are done with the groupactivities for the day. The adventurous students will have lit-tle trouble planning their own excursions, but other studentsmay feel overwhelmed by all of the possibilities. For exam-ple, on one trip I gave students an entire Saturday to exploreon their own, and I found out the next day that four studentsstayed in the hotel and watched DVDs on their laptop com-puter. To help students like this, I now provide them (if nec-essary) with a handout that lists three to five options,including a description of the site, its cultural significance(why it is a “must-see”), and directions to get there. Thisstrategy has made a dramatic impact on helping motivatestudents to maximize their experience in the foreign city.

4. Company Tours

In my experience, company tours are the most effectiveand fun method to help students understand the differencesbetween the business practices of the foreign country com-pared to those in America. The company tour is also a dra-matic way to help students better understand how marketingworks in an actual setting (Moncrief, Shipp, & Lamb, 1995),and a company visit coupled with a traditional lectureincreases active learning (Gordon & Smith, 1992). In addi-tion, student feedback indicates a preference for factorytours compared to other learning activities (see Table 1). Animportant consideration for this type of learning activity iswhether the tour should take place on the factory floor, aconference room, or a blend of the two. For the undergrad-uate student, the boardroom presentation often creates aroom full of bored students. Walking the factory floor is amore interesting and visual way to learn about the company;the students will also gain a better understanding of what theday-to-day responsibilities of the workers are (Duke, 2000).

There are a few important issues to consider when seek-ing out international companies to visit. First, undergraduatestudents seem to prefer large, well-known companies. Forexample, in a trip to Germany, the favorite firms are consis-tently those with which students are familiar (BMW, Audi,Siemens). These companies are also more likely to have theresources to accommodate large groups of people. In prac-tice, however, even the largest company often limits the sizeof the group to about 20 people. Another type of companythat works well on a study tour is one that relates to a uniqueindustry of the country (e.g., a brewery in Germany, a win-ery in France, a florist in Holland).

The critical question is: How does the faculty leader goabout finding companies to visit? Unfortunately, the mostdifficult part of the planning process for a study abroad trip

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will likely involve finding companies to visit (Duke, 2000). Iffaculty members have extensive experience traveling to orworking in the target country, they may already have a signif-icant number of company contacts from which they canchoose to arrange company visits. However, if the facultymember has few (or no) contacts in the target country, sched-uling company visits can be an extremely overwhelming task.Brokaw (1996) suggested that pretrip course meetings can beused to ask students to identify the companies that they wouldmost like to visit. This strategy is not advisable for severalreasons. First, company visits can be quite difficult to organ-ize and can take several months to plan. The class sessionswill likely be held too close to the departure date for the fac-ulty member to realistically schedule company visits. Second,the companies that students are interested in may not bealigned with the academic goals of the course. Finally, if thestudents become mentally invested in these companies, theymay be disappointed if the companies they select are notavailable or willing to host students.

One relatively easy source of company contacts is othertour leaders who have previously gone on similar trips to thecountry selected. Even if these individuals have not been tothe target cities, they might be able to provide ideas fromtheir own experience to help get the faculty leader started. Amore time-consuming alternative is to scour externalresources to find companies that allow company tours. Forexample, the Commerce Division at the U.S. Embassy(http://usembassy.state.gov) is a good starting point to locatecompanies to visit. Many foreign cities also have Web sitesthat highlight their major businesses (e.g., Munich,Germany, at http://www.muenchen.de/; Paris, France, athttp://www.v1.paris.fr/EN/). Another valuable resource inthis regard is travel books about the city/country that are tar-geted toward vacationers. These contain information such aswhere to stay, cultural sites of interest, where to eat, and soon (examples include Fodors, TimeOut, and Lonely Planet).Large, well-known companies with a presence in the cityoften are highlighted in these books, including informationas to whether or not the company allows factory tours andthe nature of the tours. Finally, contacting the AlumniOffices on your campus for names of alumni living andworking in the cities/countries you are to visit is often theeasiest way to arrange such activities.

General Internet searches can also be used to identifycompanies that are friendly to student visits. There are twoapproaches to using this method. A general Internet searchmay be conducted on search engines (e.g., http://www.google.com or http://www.msn.com) using terms like fac-tory tour, plant tour, and company tour along with the nameof the city or country. For my first overseas tour, most of myplant visits were gleaned from this method. Unfortunately, itis an extremely time-consuming method and often results inmany wild goose chases. If the tour leader has some knowl-edge of companies that are located in the city of interest, a

more targeted search could be done on company Web sites todetermine if the company is willing to conduct factory tours.

5. Student Exchange With a Class Froma Local University

An effective strategy to facilitate student understandingof the new culture is to have them interact with their peersfrom the host country. This can be accomplished by arrang-ing an “exchange” with a class from a local university. Thisclass exchange enables students to meet with their peers insimilar fields of study and to learn about the culture of thecountry from natives of the host country.

If the faculty member’s university has any sister schoolsin the host country, faculty from these institutions might bewilling to help arrange this exchange. In fact, it has beensurprisingly easy to set up these cross-cultural exchanges,and students really enjoy meeting other people their age (seeTable 1). Many students end up joining their new friends outfor dinner in the days following the exchange.

POTENTIAL ON-THE-GROUND PROBLEMS

Despite all of the aforementioned planning, no amount ofpreparation can fully prepare the faculty leader and the stu-dents for the study tour, and unexpected logistical problemswill invariably occur. Unfortunately, a discussion of com-monly encountered on-the-ground problems is largelyabsent from the literature. One exception is Gordon andSmith (1992), who mentioned student overindulgence (andgetting up early after a late night out), romantic entangle-ments, and lost luggage/tickets as challenges. However,there is no guidance in the literature that outlines possiblesolutions to these problems. To fill in this gap, in the fol-lowing section I discuss the three most significant on-the-ground problems that I have encountered when teachingundergraduate overseas study tours. I also present strategiesto mitigate or avoid these problems.

1. Keeping Track of the Entire Group

One of the most significant problems that the facultyleader is likely to encounter on a trip with even a moderatelylarge number of students is keeping track of all of the groupmembers. The more unstructured the tour activity, the morethe tour leader relies on public transportation, and the busierthe location, the more difficult this task becomes. In my firstfew trips I used the buddy system, which entailed roommatepairs looking out for one another and notifying me if he orshe could not locate his or her buddy. Unfortunately, Iquickly realized this was an ineffective strategy if both bud-dies wandered off together!

A strategy that may help keep the group together (espe-cially on walking tours of the city) is for the faculty leaderto wear an outfit that will stand out in crowded areas. Somepossibilities include wearing a bright hat or a bright shirt or

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jacket (this might not be possible if the group is visiting acompany). The tour leader can also carry something that isvisible from a distance, such as balloons or a walking stick.Periodically holding up a brightly colored umbrella has beenespecially effective at keeping the group together.

Invariably, somebody will end up inadvertently separatedfrom the group. Meeting in the morning during or immedi-ately after breakfast is a good time to discuss a backup planin case someone gets lost. For example, while riding thesubway one of my students did not realize that we were get-ting off at a particular station, and she failed to exit the sub-way car. Because we had discussed conducting a head checkbefore and after getting on/off a subway train and waiting atthe station if someone missed the stop, she did not have toworry about how to reconnect with the group. She simplygot off at the subsequent station and returned to us on thenext train.

However, it is also essential to have a failsafe plan in casea student is completely separated from the group with noeasy way to reconnect. In the previous example, if the nexttrain stop was in a different city an hour away, the afore-mentioned plan would not have been feasible. An effective“worst case scenario” plan that works well is for the studentto return to the hotel and wait there. The lost student and thefaculty member can communicate through the hotel by leav-ing messages on the room phones or through the front desk.

Unfortunately, none of these strategies will work if thestudent gets “lost” on purpose. To prevent this from occur-ring, there are a few strategies that can help keep studentsfocused and engaged so that they want to stay with the tourleader and their classmates. First, investing the time neces-sary to plan and organize a high-quality, exciting trip canhelp prevent this from becoming a major problem in the firstplace. It cannot be stressed enough how time-consuming theplanning process can be, but the pay-off is a rewarding edu-cational experience for the students and the faculty mem-ber. Second, a major concern of students is that they haveadequate free time to explore the city on their own (seeTable 1). I provide the students with a complete timetableof all group activities, and I include blocks of time in thisschedule (in half-day or full-day increments) for studentsto venture out on their own. If the students know they willhave this opportunity in advance, they are less likely tosneak away from the group. Third (and on a more tacticallevel), I conduct frequent headcounts of the number of stu-dents to ensure the group is together. It is also important tofrequently interact with each of the students to gauge theirlevels of interest, motivation, and/or exhaustion. I periodi-cally ask them how they are doing to determine if theyneed a break from all of the walking, need a washroomstop, or just need time to collect their thoughts. If this isthe case, a brief stop to a coffee shop or a park does won-ders for morale and can prevent students from strayingfrom the group.

2. Students Arriving Late to Departure Times

I give each student a handout that fully describes each activ-ity we will do as a group. This includes a summary page witha daily calendar of all group events and meeting times. It alsoincludes a more detailed itinerary with addresses, times, maps,and a brief description of each event. This provides the studentwith a clear idea of what we will do on a day-to-day basis andalso serves as a souvenir that students have used to revisit theirfavorite sites on a subsequent trip to the country.

Unfortunately, despite the detailed itinerary, in every studyabroad tour I have conducted at least one student has arrivedlate to a prearranged meeting. This usually happens in themorning as the group assembles to start the activities for theday. When I first started conducting these tours, I used to waitpatiently for the tardy student(s) to arrive. Once everyone waspresent, I would pull the tardy students aside and reprimandthem individually. I also have talked to the entire group andstressed the importance of arriving to our meeting places in aprompt manner after the late student arrives. This strategy alsoworks, but the students who arrived on time end up feelingpunished for doing nothing wrong.

Over time, I found a different strategy to be more effec-tive. I inform the students multiple times (e.g., in pretripmeetings, in the syllabus, in the airport) that the meetingtimes listed for our various activities are when the group isleaving. I make it very clear that they should arrive to themeeting site well before this time and that the group willleave at that time (and we do). This serves two purposes.First, it is a powerful way to convey the importance of beingprompt to the tardy student. The student(s) who are leftbehind are disappointed about missing the event and arenever late again. Second, leaving behind the late studentunderscores the importance of being prompt to the other stu-dents without directly penalizing or punishing them. Arelated (and initially unexpected) benefit of this strategy isthat the students start to self-police one another. If they real-ize that someone is close to missing our departure time, theylocate that student and help get him or her there on time.

3. Students’ Overindulgence of Alcoholand Hotel Parties

As noted by Gordon and Smith (1992), overindulgenceof alcohol by students on the tour is a very real possibility.Much like parents of a child, the tour leader cannot watchthe tour participants 24 hours a day. I employ a “don’t ask,don’t tell” policy and simply advise the students to behaveresponsibly and to respect the privacy of others when theyreturn to the hotel. On some trips, students will return froma night out drinking (or have a party in a hotel room), whichtypically results in complaints from other hotel guests to thefront desk. If I can hear these disturbances or if the frontdesk calls me in response to complaints by other guests, I goto the room in question and remind the students about

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JOURNAL OF MARKETING EDUCATION 217

respecting the privacy of other guests. The next day I have afollow-up discussion with the unruly students and reinforcethe fact that they are attending an academic course—not ona vacation. To underscore this, 50% of the students’ coursegrade is based on participation and contribution in all ses-sions, meetings, and deportment throughout the trip.

An alternate strategy to address student misbehavior on thetrip, whether it is arriving late to designated meeting times orproblems with overindulgence of alcohol, is to immediatelysend the student back to the home country of the university.This threat, and the use of this threat, can be extremely effec-tive in dealing with (and preventing) these behavioral problems.

BENEFITS OF CONDUCTINGAN OVERSEAS SEMINAR

Developing, planning, and executing a study abroad tour forthe first time is a difficult and time-consuming venture. Planningsubsequent trips however will be much less taxing, especially ifthe same country is visited. All of the time invested in the plan-ning of a study abroad trip is well worth the effort, and the fac-ulty member will benefit from the tour in two important ways.First, the time spent teaching the study abroad course will be afulfilling experience for the faculty leader. The faculty tourleader will gain exposure to and experience in a different culture,and this knowledge can be used in the classroom to enhanceteaching for any course with an international focus. Second, thelarge amounts of time spent with the students during the trip willresult in a better professor–student relationship compared to atraditional course and can result in lifelong relationships.

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