Virtual study abroad and the meaning of mobility: a case study of the Greece programme at a large American public university during the COVID-19 era

This article examines how a long-standing, in situ study abroad programme in Greece at a large American public university was transformed into a fully virtual model during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what this shift reveals about the historical relationship between mobility, experiential learning, and academic tourism. Drawing on programme records, instructional materials, and forty-one in-depth interviews conducted with Greek residents by participating students in the programme in August and September 2021, the study analyzes the pedagogical, methodological, and experiential consequences of replacing embodied travel with digital engagement. Placing the case within the scholarship on educational mobility, presence and authenticity in tourism, and mediated forms of travel, the article argues that the virtual programme disrupted long-held assumptions that study abroad depends solely on physical displacement. The findings demonstrate both continuity and rupture: while virtual encounters facilitated rich, often unusually intimate conversations during a period of global crisis, the absence of physical presence also reframed traditional expectations of immersion and cross-cultural contact. This case study contributes to tourism history by showing how global emergencies and technological infrastructures can reshape the forms, meanings, and future trajectories of academic travel.