Tourism, Cultural Heritage, Storytelling, and the Art of Tour Guiding.
On the track of Tourism’s best-kept secrets
Overview: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi offers this 8-days module to worldwide students (or graduates) who share a passion for tourism studies and/or tour guiding.
The approach is interdisciplinary and is divided into two main directions:
- fundamental notions and practical aspects of tourism (tourism geography, weather forecast tools, geolocation, map reading, heritage interpretation and promotion, etc.)
- tour guiding techniques and tools (persuasive speeches, the structure of speech, body language techniques, storytelling basics through actual city tours, museum visits, sightseeing tours, art interpretation etc.)
Number of contact hours: 65
Assessment method(s): Multiple choice test and oral presentation.
Contact (module coordinator): Lecturer dr. Mihai Bulai (mihai.bulai@uaic.ro)
MODULE OUTLINE
Lectures (L), workshops (W), and field activities (FA)
Tourism-focused activities
- Tourism in EU peripheral and cross-border areas
- Dracula tourism – policies and practices
- Capitalization of the communist legacy
- Stone identification. Rare precious & semi-precious stones
- Visit of Geology Museum
- Weather forecast for tour guides: from reading the sky to smartphone applications
- How can urban tissue provide storytelling for tour guides?
- Technology trends in the travel and tourism industry
Tour Guiding-focused activities
- Walking Tour Techniques
- Using Visual Story Maps for Tour Guides.
- How to use your body language as a tour guide
- Structure of a tourist guide commentary
- Guided tour of the city of Iași
- Guided tour of University buildings and attractions
- Birdwatching and Ecotourism principles.
- Plants and birds’ diversity – visit to Botanic Garden of Iași, owned by UAIC
- Tour of city center by Café-Tramway
- Visit of National Theater and Opera, Gh Asachi University Library
- (optional) Visit of the Palace of Culture, the Former Princely Palace of Moldavia