Leisure travel difficulties

On the other hand, traveling for leisure is much more expensive than traveling through a study abroad program. When considering that traveling through study abroad is most likely fully covered by federal and private loans, this makes leisure travel much more expensive in the moment compared to study abroad programs. Leisure traveling often demands full payment at the time of the trip when study abroad can be paid for by loans at the time of the trip and paid back after graduation. According to Budget Your Trip, traveling to Madrid, Spain will cost an average of $292 per person per day. This is a large sum of money for college students who often only make and have enough money to pay the bare minimum expenses of living. Additionally, many college students many must take time off school to vacation and when they do so, will not receive college credit for their time off. This may set students behind semesters or years and cost them thousands of dollars (BGSU). The benefits gained from leisure travel are very different when compared to the benefits gained from study abroad programs that focus on immersing students into a new culture to discover and learn. Brent Crane, author of “For A More Creative Brain, Travel” features comments from Professor Adam Galinsky from Columbia Business School. Galinsky believes that “The key, critical process is multicultural engagement, immersion, and adaptation. Someone who lives abroad and doesn’t engage with the local culture will likely get less of a creative boost than someone who travels abroad and really engages in the local environment.” This quote reinforces the idea that students may benefit more from living in the country and culture with its natives, versus vacationing and staying in a hotel with their friends. Although there are benefits from activities students engage in during leisure travel such as relaxing, sightseeing, and exploring, the overall disadvantages of the cost and the time away from academic studies outweigh the benefits.