MSc International Hospitality & Tourism Management

This multi-accredited conversion course will develop your critical understanding of the international hospitality and tourism industry with a managerial perspective.

Delivery:
Full time according to Funding Council definitions, Part-Time, Full-time with placement

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Why study MSc International Hospitality & Tourism Management at BU?

Study at one of the top-ten ranked universities in the world for tourism and hospitality
Benefit from living in one of the UK's leading tourist destinations, attracting over 11.7 million people (June 2021 - May 2022) with attractions including Bournemouth Air Show and the Christmas Wonderland
Address current issues and innovations that transform and shape the international hospitality and tourism context
Study abroad at one of our many partner institutions across the world
Grow your professional network and apply taught elements of your degree into practice with an optional 30-week placement
Opportunities for real-world learning both locally and internationally, including guest speakers and field visits

Find out more about the content of this course.

Course accreditations

The accrediting bodies on this course are renowned industry-wide for promoting excellence and the highest standards, all of which is reflected in the Bournemouth University Business School experience:

BU is recognised as a leading university in the industry by the Institute of Travel & Tourism (ITT) Centre of Excellence. This allows you to take advantage of networking opportunities, hear from high-level industry speakers and raise your professional profile
Accreditation by the leading hospitality professional body, the Institute of Hospitality (IoH), offers numerous benefits to you such as free membership and access to the mentoring scheme
Recognition by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) provides opportunities to participate in tourism policy events of the highest-level, and secure placements in prestigious tourism organisations globally.

See what it's like to study on this course

Image description — MSc International Hosp and Tourism

Next start date:

January 2023, September 2023, January 2024, September 2024

Location:

Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus

Duration:

September: 1 year full-time (16 months with optional study exchange). January: 16 months full-time (18 months with optional study exchange); September & January: 2 years with optional 30-week work placement or 2 years part-time

Accreditations:

United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO); Institute of Hospitality (IoH); Institute of Travel & Tourism (ITT) Centre of Excellence;

Required subjects:

All subjects considered

Entry requirements:

A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:2 in any subject.

International entry requirements:

If English is not your first language you'll need IELTS (Academic) 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component. For more information check out our full entry requirements.

Course details

If you want to study part-time, you’ll study alongside full-time students over two years. You'll be expected to study a minimum of three units per year, along with your dissertation towards the end of your second year.

The timetable for when units take place varies each year but the typical delivery for one unit is four hours a week, split between two sessions, so you will be required to be on campus at least two days a week. We can work with you to consider the timetable and make an appropriate individual plan in terms of which order to study which units.

Download the programme specification (pdf 328kb)

Core units

Hospitality Operations Management: Operations management is considerably less tangible in Services Management than in manufacturing. This unit addresses the issues that distinguish hospitality and tourism operations from those in other fields. By focusing on the inter-relationships between systems, services and technical factors, product quality, capacity and productivity, The unit offers a multidisciplinary framework to explore the wider inter-relationships between operations, marketing and accounting.
Innovations in Hospitality: The unit will address the current issues and innovations, which transform and shape the international hospitality and tourism context and its organisations, with focus on how these may be effectively managed.
The Tourism & Hospitality Industries: This unit will provide you with a comprehensive appreciation of the tourism and hospitality business ecosystem. Based on Leipier’s tourism system, the module analyses the value chain of the industry and examines the role of each stakeholder in the tourism and hospitality value system and identifies linkages, interrelations and collaboration requirements. The unit will be delivered through a series of industry guest lectures.
Destinations: Contexts for Tourism & Hospitality: Placing the tourism destination at the heart of discussion, this unit explores the physical, conceptual and administrative spaces in which tourism and hospitality activities occur, and as such provide the context for an exploration of the complex and interrelated activities of tourist activities. The unit will be international in nature, drawing on examples and practices from developed and developing nations.
Business Strategy & Finance: The foundations of strategic analysis and choices that tie into an organisation’s business decisions. This includes private, public and third sector. You'll study the corporate finance sources of organisations, reporting and interpreting financial data. This will help you understand the dynamics of the tourism, hospitality and leisure sectors.
Dissertation: An opportunity to study a subject in-depth, showing your understanding of it. The dissertation is the conclusion of your learning experience, where you'll carry out a research project. You'll use appropriate research methodology to collect and analyse data and present your findings. Your dissertation will be 15,000 words, and you'll be taught about research methods.

Option units (choose one)

Air Transport & Tourism: The aim of the unit is to develop your awareness of the role of aviation management in the successful planning and development of international tourism. It will evaluate the potential barriers to continued growth and explore the conflicts and challenges of meeting both economic and environmental targets, highlighting the contribution of aviation to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
Conference Tourism: Here, you'll reflect on the conference sector's growth, and examine its present state by identifying the size, value, trends and growth of major conference destinations throughout the world. You'll also suggest how destinations and venues can develop a better conference product.
Crisis & Disaster Management: You'll develop a systematic understanding of the unique needs and critical resources that exist within key sectors and activities of Tourism, Hospitality and Events. You'll complete a number of strategic and tactical planning exercises aimed at addressing the need to integrate tourism and events within risk reduction, response and recovery strategies.
Design for Tourism & Hospitality: This unit addresses the role and significance of design in and for the tourism and hospitality industries at the level of individual businesses and organisations or sites and events. It considers the design of tangible and intangible objects or ‘things’ such as buildings (exteriors and interiors), maps and guides, souvenirs, live events, corporate identities, business processes, and servicescapes.
Entrepreneurship: The process of creating a new entrepreneurial venture, and funding sources for new and upcoming entrepreneurs. There's a focus on identifying and evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities. Entrepreneurial development may cover a single entity, a further investment by a portfolio entrepreneur, a management buy-out, a spin out or a venture in an existing organisation.
Food Design & Marketing: You will develop an understanding of the broad context of food design and marketing. The unit focuses on food in terms of its aesthetics, the processes and tools used in, and the spaces where food is, prepared, distributed and consumed and how these are promoted and communicated to the consumers with emphasis on consumer behaviour towards food.
Global Food & Drink: The unit will provide an in-depth analysis of the role of food and drink in the international hospitality, tourism, retail and events business environment. An understanding of the nature of our relationship with food socially, economically, politically, environmentally and in terms of technology is a valuable addition to other strategic and operational areas of expertise.
Tourism Management & the Natural Environment: You’ll critically reflect upon the significance and impact of tourism on a variety of ecosystems; the use of animals in tourism, the ways in which tourism can be successfully managed to ensure it contributes to the goals of biodiversity and conservation; and the relationship between climatic changes and tourism development.

Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

Placement

You have the option to undertake a 30-week placement at the end of the course, providing an opportunity to apply your acquired knowledge and skills in the workplace. You are required to find your own placement; however, our Careers & Employability Service and your faculty placements office are on hand to support you.

The placement is intended to foster personal and professional development, and to help you to make a connection between academic learning and the working world.

Find out more

Optional study abroad

Studying abroad is an incredible opportunity to experience a new country and culture while continuing your degree. If you choose the study abroad option, you will complete a semester (around three months) overseas at one of our partner institutions.

If you start your course in September, you will complete semester one and two at BU then finish for the summer break. You will start the study abroad option in September of your second year, at the same time as completing your dissertation and complete the course in January of the second year.

If you start your course in January, you will complete semester one, break for summer and then complete semester two at BU. You will start the study abroad option in January of your second year, at the same time as completing your dissertation and complete the course in July of the second year.

You can choose to study abroad or take the optional work placement but not both.

Find out more about studying abroad.

Programme specification

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

Rankings

2nd

BU is second in the UK for hospitality and tourism management according to the Shanghai Rankings of Academic Subjects 2022

Top 20

We are in the top 20 universities in the world for hospitality and leisure management – QS University Rankings 2022

Placements

An exciting and valuable part of your studies with us is the opportunity to gain valuable experience through a full-time industrial placements, for a minimum of 30 weeks.

You will have the option to start your placement when the taught units of the course are finished, and after you complete your dissertation.

Find out more about placements for postgraduate students

What job roles can you expect?

What support is available?

We provide a lot of support for you to help you find work, including a block of seminars, covering topics such as writing a CV and a covering letter, completing an application form, performing well in interviews, and we also provide language support to assist you with the written elements of your applications.

However, it is ultimately your responsibility to find work. The university does not guarantee that you will find a place. As you all probably know, it is hard work finding a job, and for this reason, many students change their mind once they are here, and choose a taught unit instead of doing the placement.

During your time on placement you will be supported by a unit tutor and a placement development adviser who will visit you on placement and keep in touch by phone and email.

International students

If you choose to do a placement as part of your course:

If you have previously studied in the UK, we will consider any study limit that may apply. We will issue your CAS according to the length of time you are entitled to under UKVI regulations (if you do not have enough time left for a work placement year, we will issue your CAS to cover your course dates only).
If you decide after you have enrolled on your course that you do not want to do a placement, this will be reported to the UKVI when you have successfully completed your course.

If you choose not to do a placement as part of your course:

We will note this on your CAS and your visa will only be granted long enough to cover your taught course, excluding placement.
If you change your mind while you are here and decide you want to do a placement, you will need to leave the UK to make a new Tier 4 visa application for the additional year of study. You would need to pay for your return travel back to your home country, as well as the cost of a new Tier 4 student visa application.

Find out more about placements by reading our student blog.

Your application

What we’re looking for

For International Hospitality & Tourism Management we are looking for applicants who:

Have a real passion for the Hospitality and Tourism industry
Love working in a multi-cultural, internationally diverse, customer driven environment
Are keen to learn about how the industry works and cutting edge thinking and practice
Have the motivation to undertake an academically challenging, well focused and enjoyable postgraduate course.

Selection methods

How and when to apply

There is no application deadline for this course. However, if you will need a visa to come to the UK to study, think carefully about the length of time it will take for your visa application to be processed and make sure your visa will be ready in time for the beginning of your course.

December and January is one of our busiest application periods and therefore it may take us a little longer to process incoming applications. For courses with a January start date, we recommend submitting your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Click the green ‘Apply now’ button to submit your application free of charge online through myHub, our application portal. You will create your own myHub account so that you can track the progress of your application. Don’t forget to save your application as you go; you can return to it at as many times as you want before you submit it. For more information visit our How to apply section.

Entry requirements

General entry requirements

International entry requirements

You can find details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our entry requirements for non-UK students' page.

Please see below some examples of the qualifications for entry:

India: Bachelor’s degree (4 years) from a recognised HE institution with a minimum overall result of 55%
Nigeria: Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution with a minimum classification of 2:2
Thailand: Thai Bachelor's (Honours) degree from a recognised higher education institution with a minimum GPA of 2.5/4.0
Turkey: Bachelor’s degree (Lisans Diplomasi - four years) with a minimum overall GPA of 2.3/4.0
Vietnam: Bachelor's degree/Bang tot nghiep dai hoc with an average score of 6.5/10, or a Master’s degree/Thac si.

All applications will be subject to a minimum grade and your degree may need to be in a relevant subject area.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:

IELTS (Academic) 6.0 with minimum 5.5 in each component, or equivalent.

View further information about our English language requirements.

Bournemouth University International College offers a number of pre-sessional English and preparatory programmes to prepare international students for postgraduate study at BU. Admission to the degree is guaranteed on successful completion of your course to the required level.

Careers

Our graduates from this course have entered large organisations as part of a management development scheme and to gain practical experience before being appointed to management roles.

Other graduates have also returned to home environments to run family businesses and developed their own business opportunities.

Potential job roles

As an International Hospitality & Tourism Management graduate, you will be prepared to undertake roles in areas such as:

Operational management
Marketing
Human resources
Hotel management
Tourism mangement

As you progress through the course, selecting an option unit and setting up your placement – should you choose to complete one – will help you establish the exact career path you want to follow, and the sector in which you want to put your studies to use.

Further study

Costs and fees

You can find full information about the deposits required and how to pay your fees in our postgraduate fees and funding section, including details of the Postgraduate Loan (subject to fee status).

All fees are quoted in pounds sterling and are per annum. Fees quoted are for tuition only unless stated otherwise. Your tuition fees will be the same for each year of your course.

Find information on living costs for postgraduate students

No hidden extras

What's included in your tuition fee?

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

Materials for any mandatory field-based teaching activity.
Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement.
A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service
The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces
Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, intregrated social media and advanced video features.
IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow
Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme
Disability and additional learning support
The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills
24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Costs of living and other expenses you need to consider

Additional costs

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

Laptops, tablets and mobile devices and any software used on personal devices. Access to a personal computer is strongly recommended. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, visit our website for information regarding BU financial support funds.
Accommodation and living costs. Our accommodation price guide can be found on our website.
Travel costs, outdoor wear and footwear for optional field trips.
Textbooks, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of text books and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shops stock a wide range of stationery supplies on both campuses
Travel costs to and from the university campus. An annual bus pass is included in your rent if you are living in halls of residence/Unilet accommodation or may be purchased separately.
Travel costs to and from your placement (both in the UK and overseas). Information about funding your placement year can be found on our website.
SportsBU membership.

Repeat units

Deposits

International (not Rep. of Ireland) students need to pay a non-refundable £3,000 deposit to secure their place on a postgraduate course. You will need to pay your deposit by the date stated in your offer letter. The remainder of your fee will be payable on registration/enrolment. There are two exceptions to the non-refundable rule on the deposit:

You fail to meet the academic or English requirements of your offer
You are refused a visa to enter the UK, provided the reason for the refusal is not a fraudulent application.

Financial help available from BU

Our staff

On this course you will be taught by staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This could include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners and research students, many of whom are actively engaged in research and/or professional practice which is integrated into the teaching of this course. Please note that teaching staff can change.

Dr Charalampos (Babis) Giousmpasoglou – Senior Academic & Programme Leader

Babis has a dual background, as practitioner and academic; he has worked for 20 years as a senior manager and GM in the Greek luxury hospitality industry. As an academic, he worked in Greece, Bahrain and the UK in undergraduate and postgraduate hospitality and business administration related programmes.

His research interests focus on Managerial work, Hospitality Management, Culture, Human Resources Management/OB and Brain Drain. On these research themes, he has published a book, book chapters, journal articles and presented papers to national and international congresses. Babis is a Senior Fellow member of the Higher Education Academy (UK), Academic Fellow in CIPD and Institute of Hospitality Member (MIH). He is also a reviewer in reputable academic journals such as the ‘International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management’ (IJCHM).

View Dr Charalampos (Babis) Giousmpasoglou's staff profile

Dr Sean Beer – Senior Academic

Sean is a Senior Lecturer with a passionate interest in the interaction between tourism, culture, food, the countryside and the food supply chain. Originally he trained as an Agricultural Scientist gaining a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture from Reading, a DipAgSci from Massey University in New Zealand, a CertEd from Wolverhampton and a PGDip in Research Degree Supervision from Bournemouth. More recently, Sean has been working in the social sciences and have just completed a PhD based on a thesis examining perceptions of the authenticity of food.

This academic work has been backed up with considerable practical experience in agriculture, marketing, the food supply chain and the rural economy in general, gained on the family farm and within associated family businesses and the food industry, local and international. Sean is currently a Senior Academic in the Business School, Department of Tourism and Hospitality, and his role involves teaching, consultancy, research, publication and broadcasting. His principal research interests include the food supply chain, consumer behaviour, rural business, society and development.

Sean was awarded a Rotary Foundation Scholarship, a Winston Churchill Fellowship, and is also a Nuffield Scholar. Sean is a regular commentator on rural and environmental matters on the radio and television and is active in the community. He has also recently finished three years as a member of Countryfile Magazine Editorial Review Board.

View Dr Sean Beer's staff profile

Professor Adele Ladkin – Professor of Tourism Employment

Adele is a Professor of Tourism Employment at Bournemouth University. She was educated at Leicester University in Human Geography, receiving her PhD in Tourism Human Resources Management from the University of Surrey in 1995.

Adele’s research interests are the labour, employment, and human resource aspects of tourism and hospitality. She is also interested in the technological affordances for the tourism experience, in particular the practices of ICT use in leisure and business tourism, and how digital developments shape future travel experiences.

She has worked extensively with international postgraduate students in the UK and Hong Kong as part of MSc and PhD programmes. In 2015 she was awarded the Silver ‘Your Brilliant” Award from Bournemouth University Student Union in the category of “Most Brilliant support for International Students’.

View Professor Adele Ladkin's staff profile

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis - Professor in Marketing, Strategy and Innovation

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. He is Director of the eTourism Lab and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, at Bournemouth University Business School in England. April 2010 he was promoted to Professor 2 (or what is called a Distinguished Professor in other Universities), a level reserved for a small percentage of elite academicians. Professor Buhalis is involved in a number of European Commission projects and regularly advises and contributes to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Pacific Asia Tourism Association (PATA) and the European Commission in the field of information technology and tourism.

He is an active tourism practitioner, co-creating innovations and re-engineering business process with organisations around the world. Professor Buhalis’ industry innovation and policy experience includes managerial and non executive directorship roles in the tourism and hospitality industry, as well as 30 years of international tourism and hospitality research and consultancy. Throughout his extended career of advising, researching and consulting, Dimitrios has worked around the world and has delivered projects, presentations, conferences and consultations for governments and businesses

View Professor Dimitrios Buhalis's staff profile

Dr Daisy Fan - Principal Academic

Professor Heather Hartwell

Heather is a UK registered nutritionist. Her expertise and research is within the field of public health nutrition particularly as it relates to food service and food security. Currently she is principal investigator for the EU project Veggieat, the EU project FoodSMART and the British Council, Veg+ project with the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Her research puts academic impact from nutritional aspects of health and wellbeing into practice in a new and unique way and provides simple strategies for building healthier communities. A ‘whole systems’ approach is taken which integrates facets of consumer behaviour, nutrition, business practice and environmental sustainability.

Current research activity is also in the area of destination marketing and its relationship with wellbeing, Heather is PI of the ESRC project Destination FeelGOOD.

View Professor Heather Hartwell's staff profile

Jeff Sadd - Lecturer

Jeff Sadd is a lecturer in finance across many programmes within the Bournemouth University Business School. His professional career background was in the International Capital Markets, specialising in Derivative Risk Management, working both in London and New York, where he was a Director of Derivative Trading and Management for a major U.K. bank.

View Jeff Sadd's staff profile

Dr Hanaa Osman - Principal Academic In Tourism and Hospitality

Dr Osman's research interests are in the areas of culture and the experiences of ethnic migrant workers in the UK hospitality industry. She is also interested in autoethnography which is the study and reflection on self that may impact on wider society and culture. She is currently working on research into Muslim women experiences in the UK hospitality industry using Auto autoethnography to reflect on my own experience. Dr Osman teaches consumer experience and behaviour to first year students in hospitality management and supervises a number of MSc dissertations that also relate to her research interests.

Research

Gender and Tourism
Emotional Intelligence in Hospitality
Commercial Hospitality and Tourists' experiences
Muslim Females in Hospitality

View Dr Hanna Osman's staff profile

Dr Evangelia Marinakou - Lecturer in Marketing, Strategy and Innovation

Lia has been teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in higher education, following a career in management in the Greek hospitality industry. She has served as head of department and dean at various academic institutions in Greece, Switzerland, Bahrain and the UK. Her research interests focus on women in hospitality management, leadership as well as teaching and learning methodologies in HE. On these research areas she has published a book, book chapters, journal articles and has presented at international conferences. She has also worked on European funded projects as project leader with focus on vocational training in hospitality and tourism. Moreover, she has trained a number of professionals in the industry in Lifelong Learning programmes. Finally, she is a reviewer in reputable academic journals such as the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM).

View Dr Evangelia Marinakou's staff profile

Hande Turkoglu - Lecturer in Tourism

Course changes

Changes for 2021

Date	Changes to this course
17/05/2021	Where the change was made: Course details Change: Programme restructure, completion of dissertation before optional placement year.

Changes in 2019

Date	Changes to this course
21/11/2019	Where the change was made: Course details Change: Removal of units Tourism & the Media and Tourism, Culture & Society Previous text: Tourism & the Media: This unit will develop your ability to critique and apply media theories, practices and discourses in relation to tourism. Tourism Culture & Society: The unit explores the principles, concepts and practices of tourism from the perspective of social science and cultural studies theories. More specifically, the unit discusses the contributions of social science disciplines in understanding the multiple dimensions and manifestations of tourism globally.

Date

Changes to this course

21/11/2019

Where the change was made: Course details
Change: Removal of units Tourism & the Media and Tourism, Culture & Society
Previous text:

Tourism & the Media: This unit will develop your ability to critique and apply media theories, practices and discourses in relation to tourism.

Tourism Culture & Society: The unit explores the principles, concepts and practices of tourism from the perspective of social science and cultural studies theories. More specifically, the unit discusses the contributions of social science disciplines in understanding the multiple dimensions and manifestations of tourism globally.

Changes in 2017

Date	Changes to this course
15/11/2017	Where the change was made: Fees Change: After an annual review of the placement year tuition fee, a price increase in line with current inflation, equating to 3% has been introduced for September 2018 entrants. Previous text: £790
02/10/2017	Where the change was made: Course details Change: The unit Tourism and Hospitality Principles & Practice has changed to The Tourism & Hospitality Industries Previous text: Tourism & Hospitality Principles & Practice: This unit is international in nature, drawing on examples and practices from developed and developing countries. You'll appreciate the broad study of tourism as a field in its own right.
10/08/2017	Where the change was made: Course details - Sept 2018 onwards Change: Changes to all core and option units for students starting in September 2018 onwards Previous text: Course details - Sept 2017 & Jan 2018

Changes in 2016

Date	Changes to this course
06/05/2016	Where the change was made: Course details Change: A new option unit: Economics for Tourism and Hospitality Previous text: N/A
04/03/2016	Where the change was made: Course details Change: A new option unit: Creative Industries in Tourism & Events Previous text: N/A
02/03/2016	Where the change was made: Course details Change: Elective unit change. Removal of the unit Managing Organisations and addition of the unit Research Methods Previous text: Managing Organisations: Develop competence in organisational management and behaviour for a management career in the leisure sector. You'll investigate key roles and how these may be affected by operational environments and organisational structures and cultures, particularly in international and multinational organisations.

Statistics shown throughout this page are taken from Unistats and BU institutional data unless otherwise stated.