Traditional visit from the partner university IUPUI

As part of a study tour, we were once again visited by students from the American partner university IUPUI in Indianapolis, with whom we have been collaborating for 13 years through a joint online course, Global Dialogue in Tourism.

The study tour on the topic of cultural heritage and tourism, based on the legacy and cultural heritage of two empires, four countries, and specific regional and local cultural heritage content, was designed by Tursitica's Department of Cultural Tourism. The organization was managed by the Maona agency.

A group of 12 students and two professors, Amanda Cecil and Amy Johnson, began the study tour in Venice with professional guidance from Milka Sinkovič. On Thursday, May 16, 2024, the group arrived in Piran, where they were welcomed by students and the student council of UP FTŠ Turistica. The next day, 3rd-year students of the UNI Tourism program, Anisija Firevski, Kristina Topalović, and Lejla Zupan, opened a special exhibition for the guests, which they prepared as part of the course Creative Industries in Tourism, under the mentorship of Dr. Irena Weber and Daša Okrožnik, MSc. The exhibition, titled "Foreigners (Tourists) Everywhere: Found with Translation and Illustration," related to the current theme of this year's Venice Biennale. The students used artificial intelligence to explore the concept of foreignness in a specific connection with tourism and prepared interpretations of visual material, partly created by artificial intelligence and partly original work by Anisija Firevski. The students engaged in a lively debate with their American colleagues.

After a short lecture by Dr. Irena Weber on the topic of Forma Viva (Sculpture Exhibition), Slovenian and American students continued their academic interaction at Forma Viva and the Sečovlje Salt Pans, with additional contributions from Dr. Simon Kerma on the topic of indigenous olive varieties.

The American study group continued their program and concluded it in Vienna, where an evaluation was conducted with excellent results.