In the second year of the Bachelor of Tourism students go on an International Field Project somewhere across the globe. Monday October the 28th, the destination was finally announced! All the 2nd year students, including me, were already guessing appropriate destinations for weeks, could not stop talking about their wishes and plans and were not able to subtly hide their excitement.
This stormy Monday could not have been a better day to hear what tropical destination this year’s fieldwork will take place. Gathered at the NHTV Breda, everyone was counting the minutes and getting more and more curious as the day passed. We were waiting for this special moment already for a long time! A new lecturer, Harald Buijtendijk, was introduced as the fieldwork-coordinator. He was the person to reveal the destination. After a few slides about the purpose of the trip, some elaboration about the contribution of this research project to our programme and some attractive pictures from previous international field projects, we were finally at that moment…
This year, 2014, we are going to: SINGAPORE, CAMBODJA & THAILAND!! WHOEHOEEE. Every single person started to glow, smile, whisper, and scream. Mid April, we are going to discover these amazing places for 4 entire weeks! We will first fly to Singapore and probably spend the day as a stopover with great possibilities to discover the city. Then we will fly to Siem Reap in Cambodia to experience the unique Cambodian culture, to be immersed in the extensive tourism development, to have guest lectures from local businesses and to visit the world-famous temple; Angkor Wat. Afterwards we head on, by bus, to the big modern oriental capital city of Thailand; Bangkok. Here we will have the ultimate opportunity to experience a mix of 
traditionality and typical Thai culture with modernity and globalisation. A city that is always vibrating, awake and impressive. After a few days in this urban chaos, we will travel to Koh Chang (Elephant-island), in the South-East of Thailand. On our way, we will have an impressive homestay program.
At Koh Chang we will stay for approximately three weeks. Here we will do our field research. In this research project we have to combine the knowledge & skills we have learned in the 1st and 2nd year of the bachelor and bring them into practice. 
In groups of five people we will be investigating how we can use tourism to improve quality of life. In order to do this we have to observe and interact with the local population and businesses. In the 4th week we are going to share our findings with local stakeholders by inviting them to a meeting. We finish with some days off to relax at beautiful white beaches with crystal blue water and fascinating sunsets. Exactly what we deserve after all the hard work!
Hopefully, you now have a short impression of where and what we are going to do and discover during our international field project. We will keep you up to date (including some jealous-making pictures) about the International Field Project at this blog.
I am already really looking forward to this adventure! To discover fascinating countries, to taste exotic foods, to talk with local people, experience cultures, and to do once-in-a-lifetime activities.
By Esther Konijn
