Some studies to open the doors of the world

Tourism, in a country like Spain – where forecasts seem to point to 100 million visitors this year – is one of the most important economic sectors and also one of those that demands the most employment.

The University of La Rioja offers 25 places every year for a Degree in Tourism that lasts four years. Belén Marcos decided on him after passing the then-called selectivity. For this Rioja native, her curiosity about the economy, her interest in languages ​​and her love of traveling came together in studies that would also allow her to go abroad more easily within the Erasmus program.

He chose to study Tourism and do it at the University of La Rioja because “although I also pre-registered at other universities in case they didn’t catch me in La Rioja, my first option was UR because my whole family lives here.”

As she expected, she ended up studying abroad. Although in the end she had to opt for Portugal, it was not her first choice. “I was in the Algarve, I loved the experience and I learned Portuguese, but maybe I would have liked another place with a more useful language.”

In his academic training he shared subjects with other degrees, many of the economics were common with the ADE students, languages ​​with philology, and geography. After him came the mandatory internships and his work at the reception of a hotel and that fact, together with his academic experience, was what led him to turn his life around after the pandemic. «During the covid, as I was in ERTE and I had a lot of time to think. “I liked the work, but I thought about going back to study,” he says.

It was then that he decided to return to the University of La Rioja to enroll in what had always been his second option, and start ADE together after the pandemic (September 2020). “They validated me for a year and a half of the degree, although it is true that what they validated me were the easiest subjects.”

With her degree in Business Administration already completed, Belén Marcos has reoriented her professional profile and works at PWC as an auditor of European funds and subsidies. He does not rule out returning to the world of tourism and hopes to take advantage of his training in Business Administration and Management to focus on the management of tourism companies, where he hopes to achieve an advantage with his double degree by taking advantage of his tourism knowledge with his management experience, where It is necessary to “have someone with economic training such as Business Administration and Management.”