BSc (Hons) International Tourism and Hospitality Management

Understand the importance of heritage, as well as the various roles heritage plays for tourism activities and destinations. Explore forms of heritage interpretation, examining the various meanings of heritage. Reflect on the representation and commodification of heritage for leisure and tourism purposes, often initiated in the context of destination management and regeneration.

Explore the impacts of events and festivals upon local, regional and national economies and upon local communities and society. Consider the physical, political, social/cultural and economic impacts that events and festivals exert on destinations and host communities. Use case studies to analyse impacts within local, global and event specific context.

Gain a fundamental understanding of theories and models appropriate to tourism and hospitality management. Analyse definitions, commonalities and distinctions of tourism and hospitality management. Consider mass and 'niche' products, 'alternative' tourism, transportation, attractions management, National Parks and protected areas, and tourism, society and the environment.

Profile tourism in various regions and destinations, exploring key issues and impacts associated with the development of tourism via a variety of global case studies. Contextualize the changes and impacts of the tourism phenomenon in destinations beyond the UK. Use illustrative case studies to differentiate the key issues in global tourism on a global regional basis, including Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Americas and Africa.

Receive training and practice in a range of learning and information skills relating to the service sector. Take part in specific workshops to cover information gathering, critical reading, note-taking, essay writing, group work, and written, graphical and verbal presentation. Develop confidence in taking responsibility for your own learning, be more independent, be a more effective learner and be able to motivate yourself.

Get an introduction to the concepts and functions of marketing and business in the context of the service sector. Explore the economics of the service sector, understanding today’s consumer, product development, marketing and business planning, segmentation and research; distribution channels; marketing communication and advertising.

Explore current, important conceptual and practical issues relating to tourism development and management, and gain theoretical context for contemporary debates. Focus on critical debates, developments and case-studies of tourism development with information drawn from a range of sources. Consider media representations of tourism products, motivations and the processes of tourism development, management and marketing.

Analyse the meetings and conference industry, explore principles and operational practices of MICE and Analyse the meetings and conference industry, explore the principles and operational practices of MICE, and conceptualise them within a broader contemporary commercial context. Investigate the significance of this industry for the events, tourism, and hospitality sectors, with a particular focus on its role in destination branding. Employ various case studies and examples from around the globe to illustrate subject knowledge, including operational aspects such as human resource management, site and venue considerations, as well as the supply and demand dynamics of MICE.

Gain an understanding of the principles of research design and fieldwork, preparing you for research projects that you will undertake later in your university study. Discuss the philosophical underpinnings of quantitative and qualitative research methods and enable yourself to undertake ethical research using participant observation and ethnographic methods, interviewing and focus groups, and questionnaire surveys.

Examine and explain aspects of management application from within different organisational contexts. Analyse and evaluate current business practice through appropriate data collection methods, including electronic sources. Derive and formulate feasible, realistic and cogent conclusions and recommendations to specific hospitality, events, aviation or tourism businesses. Reflect on your own expertise by making an application to these businesses via CV and covering letter.

Travel overseas on a one-week field visit within Europe – visits in recent years have focused on dark tourism in Prague, Krakow and Berlin. Get an introduction to the field area from preparatory lectures, before taking part in group visits and group survey work in the assessed task. Use data collected on the field trip to form the basis of your individual assessed work back in Sunderland.

Examine the relationship between tourism and culture, particularly cultural tourism in different spatial and social contexts. Explore topics that include; tourist practice and performance; globalisation and trends in cultural tourism, festivals and events; cultural tourism festivals and events in urban context; cultural tourism, festivals and events in rural contexts; cultural tourism, festivals and events in Europe; cultural tourism festivals and events in the UK; tourism and cultural identities; issues of commodification and authenticity; modernism and postmodernism and tourism the media and popular culture.

Conceptualise a gastronomic themed event, develop a business and marketing plan, and reflect on hospitality management using a variety of performance measurement techniques. Get an introduction to topics that include event conceptualisation, menu development, food and beverage management, marketing and public relations, interior design, legal and health and safety issues and customer service relations. Take advantage of industry expertise from the hospitality sector through guest lectures, visits to hospitality venues and bespoke workshops.

Gain awareness and knowledge of some of the HR processes, management and resourcing challenges that can be experienced when dealing with and managing employees in industry. Showcase your current skill level when planning and hosting your own training session – a key area to performance and employment with high levels of investment. Critically reflect upon your own personal learning experience, professional performance and practice throughout.

Discover the principles and practices of branding for the service sector. Explore the importance of destination brands and brands for the tourism, hospitality, events, and aviation industries and their experience-related products. Enhance your understanding of brand management, positioning, and brand image within the service sector context.

Explore the global trends of the hospitality industry, focusing on contemporary issues that will vary from year to year. Topics to be included are the impacts of globalisation, strategic hospitality management, change management in the hospitality industries, international marketing and branding, global trend analysis, the impact of IT, food and the hospitality industries.

Explore the scope and nature of tourism planning from a political, market, environmental and visitor perspective. Consider the agency and structure of local, regional, national and international planning organisations alongside the dimensions of planning for tourism in the public and private sector. Analyse the role of local stakeholders in the planning process in relation to wider strategic models.

Gain an insight into the characteristics of urban tourism. Examine the re-discovery of the urban environment as a tourist destination – tourist arrivals in cities are constantly growing and increasingly more research has been undertaken to investigate the phenomenon of urban tourism. Cover topics that include: Historical background and the development of urban tourism; Tourism as a key to urban regeneration; The demographic, socio-economic and psychographic profile of the urban tourist; The supply side of urban tourism: services, infrastructure and activities; The impacts of tourism in the urban environment; Managing urban tourism; The concept of place-marketing; Trends and developments in urban tourism.

Focus on an area of tourism management of your choice and design and implement a research proposal in this area. Set aims and objectives, select and implement research methods, conduct a literature review, collect empirical data and analyse appropriately. Benefit from expert supervision as well as training in research methods, research design and the interpretation of data and its relation to contextual material.

Explore the increasingly important area of food and drink tourism for regional economic development and identity formation. Examine the importance of food and drink products to the tourist experience and to destination success for those countries and regions closely associated with food and drink. Analyse the relationship between tourism and gastronomy and examine the direct and indirect advantages and disadvantages to local and regional communities associated with the development of gastronomic tourism and event initiatives.

Explore various theories and principles associated with the management of service quality in tourism, hospitality and events. Analyse issues in service delivery for the service organization, employees and consumers. Develop an appropriate model for analysing service quality in a given service organization related to tourism, hospitality or events.

Consider the impact technological innovations have had for the visitor economy in the areas of tourism, hospitality, events and aviation. Reflect on the empowerment of consumers through technology, in particular, opportunities provided through social media and mobile technologies. Learn more about the current digital technologies impacting the visitor economy, such as social media, mobile technologies, augmented and virtual reality, and the concepts of co-creation.

Prepare yourself for a career in industry as an employee, leader or manager. Investigate leadership and management styles and approaches as well as researching and debating equality and diversity issues. Gain a greater understanding of leadership and management challenges which occur every day in the wider world.

Develop your employability and gain an understanding of career pathways in the hospitality, events, aviation and tourism industry. Investigate work environments and study a number of important topics, such as career planning and pathways, communication and networking, presentation and interview skills and more. Discover and work towards securing a graduate job role or career.