As Winona State basketball player Jonte Flowers aligned himself at the free throw line during Wednesday’s game in Massachusetts, the sports commentators on TV took the lull in the action as an opportunity to introduce Flowers as a senior majoring in recreation and tourism. The commentator said this with an amused tone, then laughed and said the major sounded like a lot of fun.
Meanwhile, Roger Riley, a professor of Recreation and Tourism Studies at Winona State University was at home watching the game, his blood boiling from hearing the comments that seemed to undermine the credibility of his field.
According to Riley, the comments made by the sports commentators are all too common; there are a lot of misconceptions about the Recreation aspect of the Physical Education and Recreation program at Winona State.
Some of those misconceptions are that recreation and tourism classes all have titles like Underwater Basket Weaving, and it’s the major you pick up if you do not want to have to study.
In Winona State’s course catalog, requirements listed for a minor in adventure tourism include courses like Qualitative Research Methods and Legal and Financial Aspects of Recreation—not easy A’s.
Underwater basket weaving is not listed.
There are also course titles listed with fun-sounding titles: Outdoor Pursuits, Adventure Travel and Tourism Development and Wilderness Ethics Safety and Survival.
It makes sense that they would sound fun because after about 120 students majoring and about 50 minoring in the program graduate from Winona State and get jobs, they will be in the business of organizing fun for other people.
Riley explains that people spend a third of their lives working, a third of their lives doing “general maintenance” (sleeping, eating, bathing, etc.), and that leaves a third leftover for leisure.
“We have people organizing everything else, why not have people organizing that leftover third,” Riley said.
Tourism generates a lot of revenue for the United States.
“In 37 states, tourism is the number one income generator,” Riley explained, and said that it is number two or three in the other states.
“People don’t think of play as being an economic source,” he said.
It’s a growing field, and by July 1, 2008, recreation will no longer be a part of the physical education department at Winona State. Recreational Tourism and Therapeutic Recreation will be its own department.
Riley’s teaching focuses on the recreational tourism aspect of the program. Professor Lorene Olson focuses on the therapeutic recreation.
She says a recreational therapist’s work is similar to an occupational or physical therapist.
The recreational therapist will analyze the patient’s needs and try to plug them into the right activities. This could be as simple as playing checkers with someone who has returned from Iraq with a brain injury.
She says students who graduate and go to work at a hospital as a recreational therapist start at salaries of $30,000 to $40,000.
Three hundred universities in the United States have recreation and tourism programs, but not many students come to college knowing they want it as a major.
Olson says she advises very few incoming first year students who come to summer registration.
Riley says a lot of students declare a recreation and tourism major during their sophomore year. He calls it a “discovery program.”
Students in the program are required to do an internship. Riley estimated that about 30 percent of Winona State interns are offered a job from their internship employer.
Riley and Olson said that many students plan their internships working with resort recreation in a warmer climate.
These internships could be planning recreation in a correctional facility, a senior center or a military base. It could be working with a private club or fitness center, community parks and recreation or an entertainment or sports venue.

Questions or comments?
Contact Lydia at
LCOglesb3075@winona.edu