Students in the College of Business’ marketing study abroad program spent a packed 12 days in Spain, Italy and France getting a first-hand look at important local manufacturing and service-based companies including the Codorniu Winery in Barcelona and the L’Occitane manufacturing facility in Provence, as well as the Port Authority in Nice.

Their hotel: Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas.

“The trip offered the students a unique opportunity to learn experientially about conducting business in a foreign country as well as marketing and communication challenges and opportunities,” said Tim Birrittella, faculty co-director for this marketing study abroad program at the College of Business.

The Marketing Department’s professor Elisabeth Beristain, who manages and oversees all aspects of the marketing study abroad programs, organized the business-focused trip, supported by FIU’s Office of Study Abroad. Cultural outings included La Sagrada Familia and La Boqueria Market in Barcelona, the Vatican, Pompeii, Marseilles, and city tours at every stop.

Lessons didn’t stop aboard the Freedom of the Seas. Students met with the ship’s captain, hotel director and food & beverage manager, among others. A behind-the-scenes tour of the ship showed off the laundry facility, kitchen and theatre, where students met with performers who had trained at Royal Caribbean’s training facility at our BBC campus before boarding the ship.

In Their Own Words: