"Anything is possible"

The combination of business and travel appealed to her, says Luisa Walter. She is studying for a Master's degree in International Tourism Management in Görlitz and is about to write her Master's thesis. For the 23-year-old, it was always clear that if she completed her Bachelor's degree, then the Master's would automatically be part of it. Luisa Walter comes from Görlitz and lives with her parents. She has never been away from home and has found everything she needed for her career right on her doorstep. Luisa Walter first went to a vocational college specializing in business, then decided to study for a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Management and, while she was still writing and defending her Bachelor's thesis, purposefully added a Master's degree in International Tourism Management. Now she is almost at the end of this academic career - at just 24, she will have her Master's degree in her pocket and the world will be open to her.

From September to December 2023, Luisa Walter studied in Bali, Indonesia. The course was called International Business Studies, and a local German agency helped with the complicated visa process and was always a point of contact for the student. "The professors were locals," says Luisa Walter. "It was the ones who impressed me the most, the ones who never left Indonesia. This simplicity, being happy because you are allowed to be in the world - I won't forget this attitude to life in a hurry." When she returned to Germany after four months, she immediately noticed the pessimistic and negative attitude of the Germans, perhaps a small and reverse culture shock that Luisa Walter had not expected.

But the start in Bali was not always easy either. "Tropical diseases and caution when eating, a 16-hour flight, I was somehow aware of all that, but I wasn't prepared for the fact that it was the other German students who made life difficult for me in the end," says Luisa Walter. "There were so many prejudices against me because I come from a small town in Saxony on the Polish border," she says. There were also big differences between the German students, says Luisa Walter. Some rented a yacht, others were more interested in selfies at Instagram hotspots than study content. Luisa Walter at least benefited from both the difficult and happy moments, from the experience of being somewhere completely alone. "I only learned that I can do that, that I can be alone with myself, in Bali. And the impressive mindset of the locals is something I still think about almost every day."

She is now wondering how her stay in Bali could be incorporated into her Master's thesis. But she is still working on it. The contacts are there, her topics are sustainability, developing countries and long-distance travel. You can tell: Luisa Walter lives and loves her studies. "I'm very ambitious," she says. She is currently very interested in how tour operators purchase and bundle their services and make the perfect travel promise. "I have a big heart for travel," she says. And she wants to see more of the world. With her degree, all doors are open to her.

It would also be great if she could work in the public sector and in management positions, for example for the Zittauer Gebirge Nature Park or the Dresden Ministry of Tourism. "Thanks to my degree, I specialize in tourism, but I'm super broadly positioned when it comes to the business side."

After her Master's, she wants to "finally work properly", as she says, stop being on her parents' backs and pay them back for their financial support for Bali. She is already thinking about her retirement provision and dreams of being able to travel around the world with the money she earns. "Just like others love buying clothes or cosmetics, I love traveling."

Text: Sophie Herwig