Program Overview

Introduction to the Master's Degree in Tourism Planning and Management

The Master's Degree in Tourism Planning and Management, also known as ProGest, provides a unique education that combines different aspects of tourism, starting from a humanistic base, typical of the Tor Vergata tradition and the foundation of Italy's tourist offer. This course offers specific economic and business skills, as well as territorial analysis and organization, in line with the rapid change in tourist demand, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Objectives and Professional Profiles

The ProGest course aims to prepare professionals capable of grasping the transversality of tourism between the potential of places, cultures, local communities, and economic subjects. The course enables students to analyze, plan, develop, and manage sustainable development and enhancement strategies and projects. The professional profiles that can be pursued after completing this course include:

• Operator in the Convention Bureau
• Jurist for the tourism industry
• Expert in cultural, legal, and commercial relations with the Chinese market
• Web Marketing Specialist for Made in Italy
• Destination Manager
• Cultural Manager
• Professional in Food Tourism Management

Curriculum and Teaching Methods

The educational path is divided into different macro-areas of interdisciplinary and transversal training, which emphasize the necessary interfunctionality of the necessary skills. These areas include:

• Territorial planning (policies for planning, bases of jurisprudence for planning, understanding of the technical and economic feasibility of a project, construction of a destination, organization and management of events and exhibition strategies)
• Marketing and Communication (web marketing, promotion of cultural and territorial heritage, territorial marketing, reading of potential development segments related to production processes or territorial components, construction of experiential itineraries)
• Management area (elaboration of Business Plans, economic and administrative organization of tourist enterprises, bases of law for economic management, simulation of participation in tenders)
• Knowledge management (methodologies of analysis, use of Geographical Information Systems, tools, methods, and statistical applications, specializations/competences in the field of linguistic communication)

Available Resources

The resources available for the course include:

• Operators in the Convention Bureau:
  • Dott.ssa Francesca Sandri, Convention Bureau Italia (sede di Firenze), International Project Leader
  • Dott. Tobia Salvadori, Convention Bureau Italia (sede di Firenze), Bureau Manager
• Operator in Revenue Management:
  • Dott. Riccardo Cocco, Next Gen Opti Italia
• Expert in cultural, legal, and commercial relations with the Chinese market:
  • Prof.ssa Laura Formichella, Docente Ateneo, Dipartimento Diritto pubblico
• Web Marketing Specialist for Made in Italy:
  • Dott.ssa Silvia Testa, Marketing Manager, Tour Operator Incoming, Fashion Tour Roma
• Destination Manager and Cultural Manager:
  • Dott. Stefano Landi, Universitŕ LUISS Guido Carli
• Professional in Food Tourism Management:
  • Prof.ssa Flaminia Ventura, Universitŕ di Perugia, Dipartimento Ingegneria civile ed ambientale
• Jurist for the tourism industry:
  • Prof. Carlo Pisani, Docente Ateneo, Dipartimento Diritto privato

Evolution of the Course

From its activation in 2003 to the present, the course has undergone continuous improvements in the field of resources. The documentation related to the period between the activation of the course and the redefinition of the Master's Degree Classes based on the Applicative Decrees of March 16, 2007, is available in the Archivio Verbali e documenti section. Following these Applicative Decrees, in the academic year 2008/2009, the new Master's Degree Classes came into force, which led to the reorganization of the Didactic Regulations. The first versions of the Didactic Regulations of the LM-49 Class are available in the Archivio Verbali e documenti section.

The course has been developed through the expansion of relationships established by the CdS with external interlocutors and with colleagues from foreign universities, enhancing new encounters with companies, Erasmus exchanges, and teaching and research experiences of CdS visiting professors abroad. The pursuit of specific and programmed improvement objectives has been essential, generating the acquisition of theoretical-methodological knowledge inputs and access to business case studies and/or inserted in international contexts of strategic tourism planning and management.

In the academic year 2017/2018, the "INCROCIO PROFILI PROFESSIONALI COMPETENZE" table was developed, which presents an analysis of the coherence between the Training Offer, the Competences required by the market, and the Professional Profiles proposed by the CdS.

In the context of planning improvement interventions in the Didactic Offer, an increase in the teachings offered by external professional experts is expected. The CdS Council considers it necessary to involve professional experts and specialist teachers in some sectors, in line with the evolution of profiles and the definition of new professions. This is because the tourism market often presents a radically different structure compared to the employment setup in tourism in recent years. It is necessary to offer skills suitable for profiles, some of which are being defined in the market.

The course has undergone significant changes, and as of the academic year, it will no longer be activated. Instead, a curriculum in Italian, called "Progettazione e Gestione del Turismo," has been established within the Master's Degree "Tourism Strategy, Cultural Heritage, and Made in Italy." The contents of the curriculum faithfully reflect what was previously provided by the ProGest course, ensuring continuity over time. Students who were enrolled or had enrolled up to the previous academic year are guaranteed the completion of their university career and the conclusion of the planned lessons. Subsequently, they can refer to the same teachings present in the new curriculum.