Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in tourism or hospitality (or both!) are a popular path and widely available. Often, studies in tourism and hospitality are business management programs, teaching you how to be a leader within these vast industries.
Here are some of the careers you can go into with a tourism and hospitality management degree.
Air cabin crew
Few people visit more countries than air cabin crew members. When you begin your career as a cabin crew member, you receive full training in the safety and service expected in the role but this does not mean a degree in tourism and hospitality won’t come in useful.
In your studies, you will learn about what makes great customer service and you will learn about customer relations management. Passengers are essentially customers of air travel companies and the same techniques applied to win over customers in stores, for example, can be applied in the air. Providing a good experience for passengers throughout their journey starts with the air cabin crew.
Holiday representative
With expertise in tourism and an understanding of the logistics of travel, you will be well suited for a job as a holiday representative. In this role, you will work with your company, with hotels and with happy holidaymakers to ensure their vacations run as smoothly as possibly. You may be stationed in one particular place or you may have a wider opportunity to different resorts and even countries.
Hotel manager
Hotels operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and managing one is a huge but fulfilling responsibility. You will be responsible for the general operation of the hotel as well as being involved in its future plans. The knowledge from your degree will enable you to see the wider picture of how your hotel could grow in the local and potentially the international tourism markets.
Tourism officer
Like within any business degree, when you study tourism and hospitality management it is likely you will be able to take modules in marketing. Creative marketing skills teamed with management ability are great preparation for working as a tourism officer.
In this role, you will work on tourist information materials and campaigns. Often tourism officers liaise with local authorities and are involved with strategic planning in order to drive more people to your region. Real passion can be found in a job like this as you must be able to recognize and promote the best things about your local area and you will see the pay off of your work when it receives more visitors.
Tourist information center manager
Similarly vital to the local tourism sector are tourist information center managers. As well as applying your business skills of running the office, you will combine your tourism and hospitality expertise with expert knowledge of your local area to deliver advice to dozens of people every day. With your work, you will help people from all over the world have a fun, interesting and stress-free vacation.
Other occupations related to a tourism and hospitality degree are tour manager, travel agency manager and any sort of role where you provide a service to customers!
Study BA (Hons) Tourism & Hospitality Management or MA Tourism & Hospitality Management at Eton University.