Introduction
Can you think beyond borders? Is discovering new destinations and cultures something you really love? Are you a traveler and interested in a healthy lifestyle, gastronomy trends, and developments in leisure industries? Can you relate to the keywords creativity, enterprising, change management, and hospitality? The English-language Tourism Management Bachelor, where you'll become a pioneer within the tourism and hospitality industry, will be a perfect match for you!
As part of the bachelor Tourism Management, you will develop new products within the tourism industry aimed at the needs and wishes of the target group. By knowing your guests you can create an unforgettable experience and evolve a strategic vision. You are passionate to work in an intercultural context. Skills that appeal to you are; being hospitable, easily getting in touch with people, creative and organizational talent. Change means challenges and opportunities to you and you think in possibilities. You are the linking pin between tourism organizations, guests, and the company you work for.
Program
Program
The regional and international tourism-and-hospitality industry is the primary focus of this course. Hostmanship and guest experience are key elements in this program. You'll learn how to make people feel welcome, whether they're a guest or employee. You're prepared to create connections, making you the link between the company, the employee, and the guest. You also have the skills to connect different organizations together to promote a city or a region. You'll learn about subjects like marketing, human resource management, research, intercultural communication, strategic management, financial management, and international law. From the beginning, you'll develop your entrepreneurial mindset and you'll learn everything there is to know about entrepreneurship.
You'll be working with other students on projects for actual companies from day one. You'll also get industry experience from your first year with internships and company visits, and you'll take steps towards your future career in a hotel, restaurant, events agency, or holiday resort. You'll also choose a minor as part of your course. Most Tourism Management students pick an international minor or internship. We have an international network to help you along the way. You'll also develop your research skills in this course and learn how to conduct independent research.
In the third and fourth years, you can schedule your classes according to your interests. Do you want to go on to get your master's? Then undertake extensive research and write a thesis. Are you a more practical person? Then you can do multiple internships to help you learn about the range of careers and sectors, or you can do market research in preparation for starting your own business.
Internship and graduating
You'll get to know the industry starting from your first year through guest lecturers, company visits, and internships. You'll work on actual industry projects and present them to real companies. In the third and fourth years, you can schedule your classes according to your interests. Do you want to go on to get your master's? Then undertake extensive research and write a thesis. For instance, you could research booking behavior in young people or the competitive advantages a coastal location can offer convention centers. Are you a more practical person? Then you can do multiple internships to help you learn about the range of careers and sectors, or you can do market research in preparation for starting your own business.
Specializations
Developing Hotels, Resorts, and Parks
You will learn how to improve the business processes, image, and quality of products and services for companies like hotels, bungalow parks, resorts, and campgrounds. This specialization focuses primarily on lodgings and you'll concentrate on what the guest needs during their stay, from the moment the guest arrives at the hotel design and room layout.
Guiding Gastronomy, Advancing restaurants
You'll learn how to trends like slow food, organic food, and using local products that can be applied to the gastronomic sector. You'll be ready to advise restaurants on implementing the right experiential concept. You'll also learn how production processes can optimize a company.
Stimulating visits by branding destinations, tours and events
You'll join with other organizations to draw attention to a certain city or region (city marketing). You'll be ready to develop products and services that offer the tourist an authentic experience. An example could be organizing a tuk-tuk tour that visits local markets to buy ingredients and topping it off with a local cooking workshop. You'll also learn all the ins and outs of event management.
Promoting Wellbeing & Healthy Lifestyle
You'll specialize in integrating and implementing a healthy lifestyle into the tourism and leisure industry. This includes wellness, detox, and yoga travel, but could also mean improving the work-life balance of employees within an organization with the help of techniques such as mindfulness.
International
This program is international. You'll be studying alongside students from around the world. The entire program will be conducted in English. You'll learn theory by studying international examples from the industry. You can make it as international as you want it to be. You'll do an internship at the end of the first and second year, just before the summer break. That gives you the opportunity to extend your stay abroad and perhaps even combine a summer job with extra language studies. With the exchange minor, you'll spend five months abroad studying specific subjects in an area you're interested in developing further. Of course, you can also write your thesis or do your internship abroad.
Three-year track
In the academic year 2018-2019, we start a three-year track that consists of 180 ECTS-credits for students that are highly motivated and equipped for an intensive and challenging program.
Requirements
Before you apply to the Tourism Management program, you have to meet a few admission requirements.
Admission requirements
To be admitted to the Tourism Management program you need:
A qualification equivalent to a Dutch secondary education diploma, which gives you access to higher education.
Good command of written and spoken English. Your level of English should be equivalent to an IELTS score of 6.0.
Read more about the admission requirements.
Alternative entrance exam
If you don’t have the appropriate secondary school diploma, and if you are at least 21 years old, you may be exempted from this requirement. The HZ provides the possibility of taking an alternative entrance exam.
Tuition fees
The amount that you will be required to pay depends on your nationality and the program you have applied for.
EU-students:
2020-2021 tuition fees for EU-students are: €2.143*
* 50% reduction tuition fees
EU-students and students with a Norwegian, Swiss, Icelandic, Liechtenstein, or Suriname nationality are entitled to a 50% reduction on Dutch tuition fees for the first study year. The halving applies to all students who for the first time in the academic year start a bachelor's degree (or associate degree) at a funded university of applied sciences or research universities in the Netherlands. Students who pay institutional tuition fees are not entitled to the halving of the tuition fees.
Non-EU students:
2020-2021 Institutional tuition fees for non-EU students are: €7.835
Fees and finances
Next to the tuition fees and costs of living there are extra costs for your study program (study materials and books). These costs are approximately between €400,- and €700,- per year. You will have excursions on a regular basis. These costs are about €500,- for the first two years.
Scholarships
While common in other countries, scholarships, especially full scholarships, are rare in the Dutch education system. However, there are some scholarship options available at the HZ.
Holland Scholarship for incoming students
The Holland Scholarship is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and Dutch research universities and universities of applied sciences. The Holland Scholarship is for incoming students not originally from the EEA who have not previously studied in the Netherlands, and who plan to attend the HZ University of Applied Sciences in the framework of diploma mobility. The scholarship awarded is not a full scholarship. It has a value of € 5,000.00 and is allotted for one year only.
Conditions for allotment:
The student is not from the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA consists of the EU countries and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
The student has not previously studied in the Netherlands.
The student has an IELTS of 6.5 (or higher) or an equivalent.
The student wants to enroll in a fulltime (four-year or three-year) bachelor’s program at HZ.
The student has already been (conditionally) accepted to the HZ Bachelor’s program indicated with his/her scholarship application.
How to apply for the Holland Scholarship
Students can apply for the scholarship by sending an email to study@hz.nl before 1 May of their starting year. In this email, the student should indicate the reasons for choosing the particular HZ Bachelor program of study. The student must also send a copy of his/her CV with the email. The applications will be assessed by a two-member HZ Scholarship Committee, nominated by the academy directors. The HZ Scholarship Committee will award the scholarship based on previous academic results, motivation for choosing a program of study, and C.V. applicants will be notified of the decision within 6 weeks after the application deadline of 1 May.
Mobility scholarships
When you are a student at HZ University of Applied Sciences and you are thinking of studying or doing research or an internship outside of the Netherlands during your studies, then you can apply for a scholarship.
HZ Grant
HZ offers an HZ Grant for students who study or do an unpaid internship outside the EU. As far as we know, HZ is the only university of applied sciences in the Netherlands that subsidizes its students with a grant.
Holland Scholarship
This scholarship is meant for full-time HZ students who want to study, do research, or an internship outside the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA consists of the EU countries and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. The Holland Scholarship is a scholarship made available by the Dutch Ministry of Education Culture and Science together with Dutch research universities and universities of applied sciences. The scholarship amounts to a one-off payment of € 1,250 and is meant as a contribution towards your study expenses.
Erasmus+ grant
If you do part of your study at an HZ partner institute within the EU or an internship within the EU, you can apply for this grant. The Erasmus+ is a grant that the European Union has made available in order to stimulate students from its member states to gain experience abroad during their education; to enhance their languages, to become acquainted with other cultures, etc. The grant also serves as compensation in the travel and accommodation costs that a study/internship abroad will bring in its wake. Clearly, the Erasmus+ grant will not cover all the costs that you will have abroad.
As soon as you are a student of HZ, we can help you apply for a grant.
After graduation
Bachelor's degree
Congratulations, you're now graduated! From now on you may use the title ‘Bachelor of Arts’.
Did you participate in the Honors Program? You will get an extra certificate with your bachelor's degree.
Career prospects
After graduation, you'll be well prepared to take on a variety of challenges thanks to your strategic and analytical ability to handle issues methodically. You could work in a marketing department or put your specialty knowledge into practice in the hospitality world. You can use your knowledge and skills both domestically and internationally to provide your guests with the ideal experience.
Further studies
With an HZ bachelor's degree, you can continue with a Master’s program. If you want to do a Master's abroad, you can usually start straight away. If you wish to do a Master’s degree at a research university in the Netherlands, you may be required to follow a pre-master's program.