Chair Joseph asks top destinations; Kim Holland cites Italy, Spain, Japan, and China trends

I'd like to recognize Councilmember, we've been joined by Councilmember Dynowitz, Brewer, and Epstein.

What are some of the top countries that you visit?

Yeah.

That's an excellent question, and we've seen some interesting changes over time.

Overall, if you look at trends since 2013, you see in first place, no surprise, Italy, followed by Spain, Japan, China, France, England, South Korea,

Germany, Greece, and Australia.

I don't think that this will come as any surprise to anybody.

But what is interesting is that we are also seeing trends where Spain is almost tripled during this period.

Italy is down by 23%.

That may reflect a decrease in the number of families that are first and second generation Italians.

But we do still have a very robust CUNY Italy program that supports exchanges throughout our system.

Followed by Japan.

Japan has gone up 2.4 times in participation.

Participation in England is 2.4 times.

South Korea is up 5.3 times, which...

Really astonish me, but I think if you look at the

cultural surge of South Korea, I may be a little less surprised.

And we also have a couple of professors who lead very interesting programs on media studies in particular in South Korea.

This is very compelling for students.

And China is down 78%.

Now,

I don't think that that is necessarily a permanent trend.

We did see, obviously, through the pandemic and policies that impacted both Chinese citizens and visitors some trepidation.

But Stephen First can speak to, you know, a campus that is rebuilding in that area.

But at some campuses, they have chosen to focus on Taiwan, for example, for their students who want opportunities to learn Chinese language.

So those trends tell you a little bit about what students are trending towards.

But what I really like about our programs is that there's a huge breadth available and that the students are always encouraged not just to think about the locations they're going to, but about the academic focus.

And to really look at this as not just...

tourism.

It's a very different experience than they will have even five years after they graduate.

They will be able to participate in their host countries in an extremely different way.