Bachelor in Tourism and Leisure management

Introduction

The hospitality & tourism business is the fastest growing industry in the 21st century. As people have more spare time and tourist expenditures increase sharply, the industry is facing many challenges such as dynamics in marketing channels, skills shortages, more demanding consumers, emerging markets in tourism and sustainable entrepreneurship.

The Hospitality Business School of Saxion Universities offers 3 bachelor programmes that perfectly meet the demand for people who are educated in the international hospitality business and who are eager to deal with these challenges:

• Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) in Hotel Management
• Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) in Tourism & Leisure
• Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) in Facility Management

The three programmes share that they focus on creating the conditions that make it possible for people to work, travel, spend their leisure time, and stay away from home. This should be done in such a way that it offers a healthy profit to the company and brings maximum satisfaction and delight to the guests and customers.

Tourism & Leisure Management

Tourism & Leisure Management is the ideal programme for people with a flair for languages, creativity, conceptual thinking, commercial insight and who are service-minded. A lot of attention is paid to professional skills and theory, and to management skills. Moreover, developing the proper professional and hospitable attitude is an important focus point. In the Tourism & Leisure Management course you learn how to successfully lead a business in the international tourism & leisure industry as a manager, entrepreneur or consultant. You learn to translate the wishes of a guest into appealing, innovative tourism- and leisure concepts.
To this end, you will learn about the international tourism industry, design and planning of environmentally friendly resorts, ecotourism, motivation of travelers and factors affecting tourist behaviour. You will also gain expertise in managing visitor attractions, the protection and management of heritage and historic sites, tourism in rural areas, and the promotion and marketing of tourism products. All this will be dealt with by critically evaluating complex relationships between different sectors of tourism, tourism destination planning organisations and local communities through the use of international case studies (e.g. Canada)

Course content

The Bachelor programme has a duration of 4 years (equivalent to 240 European credits). The focal point of the first year is to offer a full scope of the international hospitality business. You will become familiar with the basics of tourism-, leisure-, facility- and hotelmanagement. Excursions and company visits will give you a realistic picture of the industry.

At the end of the 1st year you have the opportunity to determine which programme will be your main focus. Your developing understanding of the industry will lead you towards one of three different specialisations; a Bachelor in Tourism & Leisure, a Bachelor in Hotel Management or a Bachelor in Facility Management. All degrees are recognised by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). The NVAO independently ensures the quality of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders by assessing and accrediting programmes.

The first year modules are:

• Hospitality Business Introduction
• Industry Research
• Industry Experience
• Management Principles
• Events
• Basics of Facility Management (core for FM students, option for others)
• Basics of Tourism & Leisure Management (core for TLM students, option for others)
• Basics of Hotel Management (core for HM students, option for others)
• Hospitality Economics
• Hospitality Marketing
• Business English
• Spanish Rápido (option)
• Dutch (option)

The second, third and fourth year are dedicated to the specialisation of your choice. You will learn generic skills through exposure to contemporary management theories applied to the context of tourism & leisure specific operations. Attention is given to tactical and strategic management in areas like event management, financial management, sports and adventures, human resource management, sustainable tourism, touroperating and entrepreneurship. Alongside you will develop research skills, do a five months traineeship in the industry and you will be able to deepen your knowledge in a specific field by participating in a minor programme for one semester. The programme is concluded by carrying out a research project for your final thesis.

Extensive interaction with the industry plays an important role throughout the programme. Apart from traineeships and the graduation assignment, this is realised by drawing industry representatives into constructing cases, delivering guest lectures and hosting excursions.

Specific requirements

Entry is open to Dutch as well as international students. Before you can be admitted to this bachelor degree course you need to have a secondary school certificate (havo or mbo-diploma (middenkader or specialistenopleiding, niveau 4) or vwo-diploma). There is of course a possibility that you do not have a Dutch certificate that is required for entrance, but you do have a foreign degree. In this case Saxion Universities will determine the value of your degree and compare it to the Dutch certificate to determine its level.

Your qualification should at least be the equivalent of the Dutch certificate, see the table above, to be admitted to the programme. All students who wish to register for the programme should have taken subjects such as economics, languages and/or management at their secondary schools. Finally you need to have a good command of English. If you do not have the Dutch nationality, we require either an IELTS test-score of 6.0 or a TOEFL test-score of 550. Unfortunately, without either of these test results, your application cannot be considered.

Career prospects

Along with the growth in international tourism and leisure, the demand from the industry for qualified labour is on the rise. Dutch education and research in tourism & leisure management is internationally renowned for its high standards. Therefore, alumni can be found in tourism and leisure businesses all over the world. In order to meet the increasing demand for professionals in this rapid growing industry the BBA programme in tourism and leisure management forms an excellent basis to start your career. The opportunities represent a broad range of related industries with many interdependencies in fields such as:

• Touroperators
• Recreation & Theme Parks
• Holiday Bungalow Parks
• Hospitality Service suppliers
• Hotels
• Resorts
• Airlines
• Cruiseship companies
• Event organisers
• Other (golf-, resort-, wellness-, sports management)