Studying a Postgraduate Course in Tourism

In 2012, London was at the centre of the world stage thanks to a series of celebrations commemorating the Queen’s diamond jubilee and, most prominently, the London 2012 Olympics. For two weeks, sports lovers and patriots descended upon the UK, causing a significant boost in tourism. It has been predicted that overall London 2012 Games will result in over £2billion in tourism spending (2005 –2017) as well as creating over 60,000 new jobs.

In line with the expansion and rejuvenation of the sector, there has been a significant increase in the amount of students studying tourism, travel and hospitality at postgraduate level. International travel companies are constantly looking for graduates with specialist knowledge to take on management and leadership roles on a global scale. If you’re interested in studying within this particular sector, then you may wish to have a look at the number of courses available.

Areas of specialism

Since the emergence of low cost airlines, the popularity of air travel has accelerated in recent years, and the cost of flights has reduced significantly, the UK now has 27 main passenger airports, six of them centred in and around London, plus 31 minor passenger airports. Consequently, the air travel industry has increased in size and needs qualified pilots and airport staff to keep the airlines and airports running.

Taught and research courses in this area can either focus on the engineering/technical aspects of aviation, such as the logistics and safety elements in aeronautics and flight control systems, to programmes with more of a management focus, such as airline and airport management safety.

Tourism and travel

Tourism can be studied from a social science, history or business/management perspective, although many courses will incorporate all subjects into their programme of study. The relationship between heritage, representation, interpretation, politics and tourism in respect to development can be explored as part of a tourism programme.

Tourism/hospitality management is a popular career route for business graduates wishing to enter the tourism industry at management or trainee management level, and the subject can be studied as a taught or research programme at several universities around the UK. Programmes can focus on the business, management and marketing aspects within the industry, but also social or heritage aspects of certain areas of tourism and hospitality. MBA programmes specific to this industry are also available