Bachelor in Tourism Management

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The world is changing rapidly and as a professional in the tourism and recreation industry, you must be able to apply new technologies in your (commercial) activities in a socially responsible and sustainable manner. With a proactive and inquisitive attitude, you will learn to apply broad-minded and innovative thinking.

Year 1

Year 1 is made up of 12 modules spread over six six-week blocks. You will also be taught English and one other modern foreign language. You can choose from French, German or Spanish. Your choice depends on your entry level and whether there are enough applicants to offer that language course.

The modules focus on the travel industry, the recreation sector, and tourism destinations, covering topics such as sustainability, online marketing, financial management, and consumer behavior.

Year 2

In year 2 you will further explore the tourism industry. You will have extensive exposure to the international travel and airline industry, and the leisure and hospitality world, and you will deal with all the challenges faced by destinations near and far.

The year consists of six blocks of six weeks each, with three modules per block. In addition, you will take English classes and one other modern language course.

In the second year, you will delve into subjects such as the impact of tourism on a destination, trends, and developments in the field of tourism, marketing, and technology, and online consumer behavior with a focus on social media, and you will learn who the aviation and travel industry players are.

You will be guided by a coach using individual talks and workshops centered on the Student Profile Analysis. This is a report that gives you insight into your behavior, motivation, and talents. As a result, you will get to know yourself and your qualities better, allowing you to make better choices in the future.

Specialization: Attractions & Theme Parks Management

In year 2 you can specialize in Attractions & Theme Parks Management. This is an English-taught study track that you will complete in years 2 and 3, together with students from Leisure & Events Management and International Facility Management.

Attractions and theme parks are continuously innovating and diversifying. For instance, attraction parks are evolving into complete holiday resorts offering accommodation and entertainment at the same time. Shopping centers nowadays often have additional attractions such as food courts or simulators, zoos are expanding to include more facilities (e.g. climbing parks), and museums are adding entertainment and experiential elements to their cultural and educational offerings.

If you choose this area of specialization, you will gain insight into marketing, finance, staff planning, hospitality, and security and safety. You will also have the opportunity to do a work placement at leading parks such as Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Europa Park in Germany, and Efteling.

Year 3

As from Year 3, you will get to outline your learning path to an increasing degree. You have meanwhile gained enough knowledge about the tourism industry to determine your interests. In year 3 you will go on placement and attend a specialization track.

Work placement

You will do a 20-week work placement. You will gain practical experience and prepare for a position in the tourism and recreation field. BUas boasts an extensive national and international network, which means that there are many options in terms of placement positions, both at home and abroad. You can make use of this network or find a suitable placement position yourself. You will be supported in your search for a placement position by the placement office.

Possible placement positions:

• Communication assistant at Landal GreenParks
• Tikibad Supervisor at Duinrell
• Sun Holidays assistant at TUI
• Sustainability assistant at Transavia
• Assistant influencer marketing & social media at NBTC Holland Marketing
• Placement at EF Language School in Madrid
• Marketing Assistant at Corinthia Hotels Malta
• Sales assistant at Happy Gringo Travel in Ecuador

Areas of specialization

In this year, you will choose one of the following areas of specialization areas:

• E-Tourism: thinking up, implementing, and executing digital marketing and management strategies for organizations operating in the tourism industry;
• Tourism Design & Development: developing innovations, approaches, and strategies for the development of international sustainable tourism;
• Tourism Business: developing a sense of enterprise, and inspiring employees to offer tourists high-quality services;
• Tourist Experience: advising organizations in the tourism industry to enable them to excel in service orientation.

If you choose the study track Attractions & Theme Parks Management you do not have to choose a specialization in year 3.

Year 4

In the fourth year, you start with a minor. This may be a deepening minor in which you further specialize within tourism, or you could look beyond the boundaries of tourism: a broadening minor. A minor usually lasts five months, but we also offer a minor you can take for the whole academic year through our Newways training company. It is also possible to take a minor at another school in the Netherlands or abroad. Or you attend the pre-master's program in Strategic Business Management and Marketing in the fourth year. After this pre-master, you will have direct access to Master of Science programs at our partner universities.

After completing your minor, you will start your graduation project. This involves writing a thesis for a client. You have to find this client yourself and you are free to choose between a graduation placement or a research project. There is a wide variation in thesis topics; below you will find a small list with some examples from last academic year:

• Exploring and enhancing the motivation of front-of-house staff at the Hyatt Regency Aruba
• Voluntourism and social impact - negative social impacts and the awareness of backpackers
• Effects of neo-colonialism on tourism development and community participation of the Maasai community in Kenya
• Expansion of Kingfisher Tours to the German market
• Coping with seasonality in ski resorts, a case of Bansko, Bulgaria

You will be assigned a supervisor who will guide you through the graduation process. The graduation process is individual, but you will join a learning community where you and your fellow students and lecturers regularly meet, inspire, and help each other. After submitting your thesis, you will defend your thesis in an oral exam. Once you have passed this, you have officially obtained your degree and can call yourself a true Tourism professional!

Study load and coaching

The average study load for this program amounts to, on average, 40 hours a week, for 42 weeks. The number of hours students spend on their studies every week depends on each student and differs per week. The last weeks of each term and the exam weeks are relatively busy.

During your studies, you will be supported by a coach in the specialization area you will choose, for your personal and professional development. We will teach you to take a critical look at yourself and ask yourself who you are, what you want, what you can do, what you do, what your goal is, and what you need to achieve that goal. You will learn to put yourself in somebody else’s position, what it is like to be in another culture, and other situations (ability to empathize). In addition, you will work on a fundamentally critical attitude, learn to make well-founded choices, and further develop your adaptability and problem-solving skills.

In Year 2, each student will take part in a unique assessment, which results in a personal profile analysis (based on the DISC method). This analysis will provide insight into your behavior, talents, and how you tackle things and prefer to do things. It will also support you in making choices.

Pre-masters

BUas offers its own pre-master's program Strategic Business Management and Marketing (SBM). If your academic results are good, you will be offered the opportunity to attend this pre-master’s program in your fourth year. Successful completion of this track will give you direct access, after Breda University of Applied Sciences, to various Master of Science programs in business-related studies in management and marketing at several partner universities. A few examples are the universities of Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. In this way, it will be possible for you to earn an academic master's degree within five years' time or, after having completed an accelerated three-year track, even within four years.

After your fourth year, you can also opt for a pre-master’s program at a Dutch research university to gain direct access to their master’s programs.

Get a job

Tourism is a major and growing business worldwide

Growth in international tourism is so enormous that tourism itself has evolved into an engine of the world’s economy. Tourism as a worldwide phenomenon is closely connected and intertwined with major global changes in culture, politics, technology, economics, and the environment. Somewhere in this growing field, there will be a job for you. You can start to work, for instance, as an advisor, policy officer, manager, marketeer, purchaser, or travel guide.

• Internationally acknowledged; +55 years of experience
• High-quality international network with some 65 partner universities
• Focus on social impact, digitization in tourism, and sustainability