Program Overview

International Tourism and Hospitality Management via Study Centres BSc (Hons)

Overview

Gain a world-class undergraduate degree in International Tourism and Hospitality Management from a British university without leaving your country. This course will teach the framework of international tourism and hospitality management, so that when you graduate, you'll be fully prepared to undertake managerial roles within the tourism and hospitality industry.

Why us?

• When you graduate, you'll be ready to take on a managerial position within the tourism and hospitality industry

Course structure

Teaching methods include lectures, seminars, workshops, group work, fieldwork, and e-learning. There is an emphasis on developing independent study skills. You’ll also have opportunities to present ideas and information to other students and also develop concepts and analyses within groups.

Assessment methods include written coursework, projects, presentations, practical exercises, time-constrained examinations, and the major projects in your final year.

Course modules

Year 1 (national level 4):

• Study Skills for the Service Sector (20 credits)
  • Receive training and practice in a range of learning and information skills relating to the service sector.
  • Take part in specific workshops to cover information gathering, critical reading, note-taking, essay writing, group work, and written, graphical and verbal presentation.
  • Develop confidence in taking responsibility for your own learning, be more independent, be a more effective learner, and be able to motivate yourself.
• Impacts of Festivals and Events (20 credits)
  • Explore the impacts of events and festivals upon local, regional, and national economies and upon local communities and society.
  • Consider the physical, political, social/cultural, and economic impacts that events and festivals exert on destinations and host communities.
  • Use case studies to analyze impacts within local, global, and event-specific context.
• Fundamentals of Leisure, Tourism, and Hospitality (20 credits)
  • Gain a fundamental understanding of theories and models appropriate to tourism and hospitality management.
  • Analyze definitions, commonalities, and distinctions of tourism and hospitality management.
  • Consider mass and 'niche' products, 'alternative' tourism, transportation, attractions management, National Parks, and protected areas, and tourism, society, and the environment.
• Marketing and Business for the Service Sector (20 credits)
  • Get an introduction to the concepts and functions of marketing and business in the context of the service sector.
  • Explore the economics of the service sector, understanding today’s consumer, product development, marketing and business planning, segmentation and research; distribution channels; marketing communication and advertising.
• Tourism and Heritage Management (20 credits)
  • Understand the importance of heritage, as well as the various roles heritage plays for tourism activities and destinations.
  • Explore forms of heritage interpretation, examining the various meanings of heritage.
  • Reflect on the representation and commodification of heritage for leisure and tourism purposes, often initiated in the context of destination management and regeneration.
• Global Tourism (20 credits)
  • Profile tourism in various regions and destinations, exploring key issues and impacts associated with the development of tourism via a variety of global case studies.
  • Contextualize the changes and impacts of the tourism phenomenon in destinations beyond the UK.
  • Use illustrative case studies to differentiate the key issues in global tourism on a global regional basis, including Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Americas, and Africa.

Year 2 (national level 5):

• Core modules:
  • Research Methods for the Service Sector (20 credits)
    • Gain an understanding of the principles of research design and fieldwork, preparing you for research projects that you will undertake later in your university study.
    • Discuss the philosophical underpinnings of quantitative and qualitative research methods and enable yourself to undertake ethical research using participant observation and ethnographic methods, interviewing and focus groups, and questionnaire surveys.
  • Consultancy for the Visitor Economy (20 credits)
    • Examine and explain aspects of management application from within different organisational contexts.
    • Analyze and evaluate current business practice through appropriate data collection methods, including electronic sources.
    • Derive and formulate feasible, realistic, and cogent conclusions and recommendations to specific hospitality, events, aviation, or tourism businesses.
    • Reflect on your own expertise by making an application to these businesses via CV and covering letter.
  • Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (20 credits)
    • Analyze the meetings and conference industry, explore principles and operational practices of MICE, and conceptualize them within the wider contemporary commercial context.
    • Explore the importance of this industry for the events, tourism, and hospitality industry, particularly with focus upon its importance for destination branding.
    • Use different case studies and examples from around the world to illustrate subject knowledge, including operational aspects such as Human Resource Management, Site and Venue considerations, as well as Supply and Demand aspects of MICE.
  • Current Issues for Tourism and Hospitality (20 credits)
    • Explore current, important conceptual and practical issues relating to tourism development and management, and gain theoretical context for contemporary debates.
    • Focus on critical debates, developments, and case-studies of tourism development with information drawn from a range of sources.
    • Consider media representations of tourism products, motivations, and the processes of tourism development, management, and marketing.
• Optional modules (choose 40 credits):
  • Exploring Human Resource Management in the Service Sector (20 credits)
    • Gain awareness and knowledge of some of the HR processes, management, and resourcing challenges that can be experienced when dealing with and managing employees in industry.
    • Showcase your current skill level when planning and hosting your own training session – a key area to performance and employment with high levels of investment.
    • Critically reflect upon your own personal learning experience, professional performance, and practice throughout.
  • Planning Hospitality Environments (20 credits)
    • Conceptualize a gastronomic themed event, develop a business and marketing plan, and reflect on hospitality management using a variety of performance measurement techniques.
    • Get an introduction to topics that include event conceptualisation, menu development, food and beverage management, marketing and public relations, interior design, legal and health and safety issues, and customer service relations.
    • Take advantage of industry expertise from the hospitality sector through guest lectures, visits to hospitality venues, and bespoke workshops.
  • Tourism Fieldwork 2 (20 credits)
    • Travel overseas on a one-week field visit within Europe – visits in recent years have focused on dark tourism in Prague, Krakow, and Berlin.
    • Get an introduction to the field area from preparatory lectures, before taking part in group visits and group survey work in the assessed task.
    • Use data collected on the field trip to form the basis of your individual assessed work back in Sunderland.
  • Branding for the Service Sector (20 credits)
    • Discover the principles and practices of branding for the service sector.
    • Explore the importance of destination brands and brands for the tourism, hospitality, events, and aviation industries and their experience-related products.
    • Enhance your understanding of brand management, positioning, and brand image within the service sector context.
  • Cultural Tourism, Festivals, and Events (20 credits)
    • Examine the relationship between tourism and culture, particularly cultural tourism in different spatial and social contexts.
    • Explore topics that include; tourist practice and performance; globalisation and trends in cultural tourism, festivals, and events; cultural tourism festivals and events in urban context; cultural tourism, festivals, and events in rural contexts; cultural tourism, festivals, and events in Europe; cultural tourism festivals and events in the UK; tourism and cultural identities; issues of commodification and authenticity; modernism and postmodernism and tourism the media and popular culture.

Year 3 (national level 6):

• Core module:
  • International Hospitality Management (20 credits)
    • Explore the global trends of the hospitality industry, focusing on contemporary issues that will vary from year to year.
    • Topics to be included are the impacts of globalization, strategic hospitality management, change management in the hospitality industries, international marketing and branding, global trend analysis, the impact of IT, food, and the hospitality industries.
• Optional modules (choose 100 credits):
  • Professional Development for the Service Sector (20 credits)
    • Develop your employability and gain an understanding of career pathways in the hospitality, events, aviation, and tourism industry.
    • Investigate work environments and study a number of important topics, such as career planning and pathways, communication and networking, presentation and interview skills, and more.
    • Discover and work towards securing a graduate job role or career.
  • Strategic Planning for Tourism and Leisure (20 credits)
    • Explore the scope and nature of tourism planning from a political, market, environmental, and visitor perspective.
    • Consider the agency and structure of local, regional, national, and international planning organisations alongside the dimensions of planning for tourism in the public and private sector.
    • Analyze the role of local stakeholders in the planning process in relation to wider strategic models.
  • International Hospitality Management Major Project (40 credits)
    • Focus on an area of tourism management of your choice and design and implement a research proposal in this area.
    • Set aims and objectives, select and implement research methods, conduct a literature review, collect empirical data, and analyze appropriately.
    • Benefit from expert supervision as well as training in research methods, research design, and the interpretation of data and its relation to contextual material.
  • Urban Tourism (20 credits)
    • Gain an insight into the characteristics of urban tourism.
    • Examine the re-discovery of the urban environment as a tourist destination – tourist arrivals in cities are constantly growing and increasingly more research has been undertaken to investigate the phenomenon of urban tourism.
    • Cover topics that include: Historical background and the development of urban tourism; Tourism as a key to urban regeneration; The demographic, socio-economic, and psychographic profile of the urban tourist; The supply side of urban tourism: services, infrastructure, and activities; The impacts of tourism in the urban environment; Managing urban tourism; The concept of place-marketing; Trends and developments in urban tourism.
  • Service Quality (20 credits)
    • Explore various theories and principles associated with the management of service quality in tourism, hospitality, and events.
    • Analyze issues in service delivery for the service organization, employees, and consumers.
    • Develop an appropriate model for analyzing service quality in a given service organization related to tourism, hospitality, or events.
  • Leadership and Management for the Service Sector (20 credits)
    • Prepare yourself for a career in industry as an employee, leader, or manager.
    • Investigate leadership and management styles and approaches as well as researching and debating equality and diversity issues.
    • Gain a greater understanding of leadership and management challenges which occur every day in the wider world.
  • Digital Technologies in the Visitor Economy (20 credits)
    • Consider the impact technological innovations have had for the visitor economy in the areas of tourism, hospitality, events, and aviation.
    • Reflect on the empowerment of consumers through technology, in particular, opportunities provided through social media and mobile technologies.
    • Learn more about the current digital technologies impacting the visitor economy, such as social media, mobile technologies, augmented and virtual reality, and the concepts of co-creation.
  • Gastronomy (20 credits)
    • Explore the increasingly important area of food and drink tourism for regional economic development and identity formation.
    • Examine the importance of food and drink products to the tourist experience and to destination success for those countries and regions closely associated with food and drink.
    • Analyze the relationship between tourism and gastronomy and examine the direct and indirect advantages and disadvantages to local and regional communities associated with the development of gastronomic tourism and event initiatives.

Facilities

Please contact the relevant study centre for more information on location and facilities.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for Ireland. Please contact the Student Admin team on or .

Please contact the study centre for more information on their specific requirements and equivalent qualifications from outside the UK.

Is your qualification not displaying here? For international qualifications, search our full list of international entry requirements for this course.

Fees and finance

Please contact the relevant study centre for information about tuition fees and scholarships.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

When you graduate from this course, you’ll be ready to take on a managerial position within the tourism and hospitality industry. Job opportunities could include hotel manager, tourism development officer, or resort office manager. Employers could include hotels, airlines, travel agencies, events organisers, heritage attractions, local authorities, and other public sector bodies.

Additionally, you'll have a broad set of transferable skills that'll equip you for a much wider range of graduate-level employment. Your course could also be a stepping stone to further study and research.