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
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.
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.
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.
