Earn your degree in one year from a top 20 university
No GRE required
Designed to fit your schedule
Earn your degree in as little as one year from a top 25 university
No GRE required
Master of Science in Hospitality and Tourism
Master of Science in Hospitality and Tourism
The Master of Science in Hospitality and Tourism program will prepare students to advance their careers in the hospitality and tourism industry. Students will gain knowledge and skills related to service quality management, marketing, revenue management, human resource management, events, and tourism development in the hospitality and tourism industry. Courses throughout the program address topics such as globalization, diversity, and innovations in a variety of hospitality and tourism sectors. Sustainability and ethical practices are core themes explored throughout the program.
Our program also equips students with skills and knowledge to lead and innovate through disruption. Students will be prepared to take on industry changes as they progress through their career.
Additionally, students will learn how to make evidence-based decisions and plans for improvement through courses in financial management, data analytics, and applied research methods specific to the hospitality and tourism industry. The program culminates in a capstone course where students directly apply the knowledge and skills they gained throughout the program to address an opportunity for innovation within a hospitality and tourism business or organizational unit.
Learning Outcomes
Create strategies to continuously evaluate and improve service quality within hospitality and tourism organizations.
Plan innovative marketing strategies for an established hospitality and tourism organization.
Recommend business decisions based on financial data, industry trends, data analytics, and research.
Develop strategies to optimize revenue within hospitality and tourism organizations.
Demonstrate effective and ethical management skills that cultivate a diverse and high-performing hospitality and tourism workforce.
Plan sustainable and responsible hospitality and tourism development projects.
Curriculum
A Master of Science degree in Hospitality and Tourism requires 24 units of coursework offered in the fall, spring, and summer semesters. The program may be completed on a 1- or 2-year track. Students attending the program on the 1-year track can earn the degree within 12 months and those on the 2-year track can complete the program in less than two years.
Our curriculum was designed by industry leaders who are at the forefront of the future direction of the field. Our engaging faculty will prepare you to be leaders of the profession and will give you increased confidence in your skills and knowledge that will serve you throughout the rest of your career.
Global Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course examines the history, theories, trends, and impacts relevant to global hospitality and tourism.
- Apply key theories and terminology that connect the phenomenon of hospitality and tourism to real-life scenarios and problems.
- Analyze how ethics, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility influence the operations of a hospitality and tourism organization.
- Evaluate the sociocultural, political, economic, and environmental impacts of hospitality and tourism.
- Investigate the current and emerging sectors that comprise the hospitality and tourism industries.
- Appraise technologies and trends affecting the future development of the industry.
Managing Service Quality in Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course explores strategic management of service quality in hospitality and tourism.
- Describe the role of service expectations and perceptions along with the role of customers and employees in overall satisfaction and service quality.
- Analyze how customer and employee diversity and cultural issues influence the delivery of services.
- Evaluate service quality, service quality failures, and service recovery strategies for a hospitality or tourism organization.
- Assess how capacity and demand strategies affect overall business profitability, customer satisfaction, and loyalty.
Marketing Strategies for Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course examines principles, strategies, and techniques relevant to marketing in hospitality and tourism.
- Evaluate marketing strategies using relevant marketing theories and principles for a hospitality and tourism organization.
- Analyze consumer behavior for a global hospitality and tourism organization.
- Assess current marketing trends in the global hospitality and tourism marketplace.
- Develop a comprehensive marketing plan with emphasis on ethical and socially responsible practices for a hospitality and tourism organization.
Financial Management in Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course covers financial analysis methods to support sound, evidence-based decision-making in hospitality and tourism organizations.
- Analyze financial management and control tools used in hospitality and tourism, including income statements, balance sheets, statement of cash flows, forecasts, and budgets.
- Evaluate hospitality and tourism organization performance and worth using comparative, common-size, and ratio analyses.
- Appraise hospitality and tourism investment projects using capital budgeting and asset management techniques.
- Create an operations budget for a hospitality and tourism organization.
- Evaluate profitability using cost-volume-profit analysis.
Revenue Management for Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course explores key principles and best practices in revenue management and pricing for hospitality and tourism organizations.
- Interpret industry data reports to support strategic decision-making related to revenue management.
- Assess the impact of revenue management on revenue flows and profitability of hotels, resorts, and restaurants.
- Evaluate pricing and demand forecasting for hospitality operations.
- Develop a strategy for revenue management that optimizes short-term and long-term revenues for a hospitality or tourism organization.
Ethics in Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course examines ethical theories applied to common and strategic situations in hospitality and tourism.
- Differentiate ethical theories.
- Evaluate the character qualities of leaders, groups, or organizations.
- Support ethical decision-making using sound logical reasoning and appropriate principles of ethical theory.
- Consider the role of ethical relativism in multicultural settings within hospitality and tourism.
- Appraise the ethics of corporate social responsibility in the organizational context of hospitality and tourism.
Strategic Human Resources in Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course explores the broad range of human resource concepts and strategies relevant to hospitality and tourism organizations.
- Describe the role of strategic human resources in the context of its evolution within the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Recommend talent management strategies that ensure a sustainable and diverse workforce within the context of stakeholder expectations and current economic trends.
- Outline training and development strategies within a hospitality and tourism organization.
- Select appropriate performance appraisal methods based on best practices in the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Assess competitive monetary and non-monetary compensation strategies to support a diverse hospitality and tourism workplace.
- Analyze mandatory and voluntary hospitality and tourism workplace programs focused on employee health and safety.
- Apply effective management strategies within the context of labor unions.
Applied Research Methods for Hospitality and Tourism (2 units)
This course covers applied research methods relevant to evidence-based decision-making in hospitality and tourism.
- Justify the role of research to effect positive change in the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Differentiate between the scientific method and other methods of inquiry in hospitality and tourism organizations.
- Evaluate hospitality research methods, practices, and trends related to the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Assess ethical issues in hospitality and tourism research.
- Create an outline for a research study designed to validly and reliably address a hospitality or tourism issue.
Hospitality and Tourism Data Analytics (2 units)
This course covers the analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data to support evidence-based decision-making in hospitality and tourism.
- Justify the use of basic descriptive and inferential statistics as they apply to the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Analyze quantitative and qualitative data with methods relevant to practitioners in the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Evaluate the importance of data analytics, data privacy, data regulation, data security, and data-related ethics in the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Interpret hospitality and tourism data.
- Use data visualization to communicate data and results.
- Propose business decisions using hospitality and tourism data.
Tourism Development (2 units)
This course covers strategies for planning and evaluating sustainable and responsible tourism development projects.
- Evaluate a location and site for tourism development.
- Appraise supply and demand to determine the viability of tourism development.
- Propose strategies to support sustainable and responsible tourism development.
- Plan funding sources for tourism development.
- Develop an impact assessment plan for a tourism development project.
Hospitality and Tourism Events (2 units)
This course explores the analysis, planning, and evaluation of meetings and events in hospitality and tourism settings.
- Explain the major impacts events have on destinations.
- Analyze all steps in the event process, including conceptualizing, planning, and delivering an event.
- Assess sustainability and corporate social responsibility initiatives relevant to events.
- Develop strategies to mitigate risks associated with events.
- Evaluate the performance of events.
Hospitality and Tourism Capstone (2 units)
Students synthesize knowledge and skills experience gained throughout the program in a culminating capstone project.
- Identify an innovative idea or initiative to improve a business or organizational unit in the hospitality or tourism industry.
- Evaluate how broad concepts such as disruptive technology, empathic design, and accountability can inform the planning and execution of a hospitality and tourism initiative.
- Create a comprehensive proposal to support an innovative idea or initiative in hospitality and tourism.
- Create a personal plan to support lifelong learning in hospitality and tourism.
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