Module Descriptions
Core modules
Choice of either:
Electives
Year One
Strategic Marketing Management in Travel and Tourism
This module provides participants with an understanding of the
core concepts of strategic marketing and how they apply within the
context of the international travel and tourism industry. The
module focuses on developing participants’ knowledge of strategic
marketing theories and concepts and helps them to reflect on how
these might apply within the real world context of their own
organisations and other organisations with which they are
familiar.
The module will give participants grounding in strategic
marketing that will be relevant in all other modules within the
programme. In this very competitive industry, where companies
need strong thinkers and marketers, the module will enhance
participants’ employability and teach them crucial transferable
skills such as strategic thinking, digital literacy, decision
making and communication skills.
Management of People and Change in Travel and Tourism
The ability to effectively manage people and change is vital in
the fast-moving international travel and tourism industry. Hence
this module considers how human resource management theory can be
critically applied to international travel and tourism
organisations. The module is designed to strengthen participants’
ability to identify how and why organisations change and to enable
them to use innovative people management practices to lead change
within their own organisations.
During the course of the module participants will have the
opportunity to develop their own skills and enhance their
employability. In particular this module will focus on important
human resource management skills such as change management, dealing
with difficult people, leadership, intercultural awareness, team
working, managing your manager and ethical thinking in an HR
context.
Managing Financial Resources in Travel and Tourism
Managers in all industries need a clear understanding of
financial and economic techniques used by companies to make
effective decisions. This module will give learners the confidence,
techniques and tools needed to understand the language of finance,
evaluate and analyse financial information to be effective managers
in the international travel and tourism industry.
Managers within the international travel and tourism industry
will need to show a financial ability and understanding so key
decisions concerning the accuracy of financial based information
can be made. Managers need these critical skills to move forward in
the industry. In particular this module will help managers to
develop employability skills such as an understanding of the
language of finance, the ability to interpret financial information
and numeracy within the context of business finance.
Managing Travel and Tourism Operations
This module provides participants with an understanding of the
theories and concepts of operations management and the importance
of effective operations management in the context of international
travel and tourism operations. Participants will learn how
operations management covers a range of concepts relating to the
activities, decisions, and responsibilities of operations managers
including service and facilities design; product development;
project management; revenue and yield management and performance
and productivity management.
The solution to many organisational issues can be found in the
analysis of operations management, demonstrating its importance in
this postgraduate degree. Many industry examples will be used to
illustrate operations management in the international travel and
tourism sectors and participants will be encouraged to bring their
own experience to bear. Participants will also gain valuable
employability skills, particularly critical and reflective
thinking, decision-making and report writing, whilst also learning
about project management.
Year Two
Critical Perspectives on Travel and Tourism
This module gives participants the opportunity to critically
think about their own profession, as current or future managers
within it, and to question assumptions and practices within the
industry. Whilst other modules on the programme focus on building
participants’ bodies of knowledge and enabling them to develop
specific skills, the critical perspectives module, in contrast,
concentrates more on developing their capacity for understanding,
wisdom and critique. Participants will not only learn how to be
managers within the current tourism system but will also begin to
think about management as a social force and to reflect upon
assumptions about marketing, consumption, materialism and happiness
inherent within the industry, leading to a richer view of the role
of international travel and tourism in society.
Research Methods for Travel and Tourism
Participants will gain an overview of the most commonly used
methods in international travel and tourism research, both
qualitative and quantitative, and begin to think about which would
be most suitable for use on their own research project.
Participants will have the opportunity to think about the
differences between an academic dissertation and a consultancy
project and will begin to think about which might be most valuable
for them to undertake.
An understanding of research methods is important for successful
completion of first year assignments as well as for the
dissertation / consultancy project, and also enhance participants’
employability through a focus on numeracy and quantitative skills,
project planning, survey design and communication skills
(particularly written communication). The module will also include
discussion of the ethical implications of travel and tourism
research and the complexities of conducting research within an
international or multicultural context.
Dissertation (choice between dissertation or consultancy
project)
The dissertation module gives participants the opportunity to
consolidate their learning to date in the form of an intensive
piece of academically rigorous research focused on a research
question of relevance to some aspect of the international travel
and tourism industry. Participants are expected to identify a
suitable research question, framed within the context of existing
academic research, and then collect relevant data needed in order
to answer their question.
Participants undertaking this project will have the opportunity
to apply the knowledge and skills which they have learnt on the
modules previously taken and, where appropriate, will be encouraged
to use their own organisation as the basis for their research.
During the course of completing the dissertation participants will
further develop key employability skills such as creative and
strategic thinking, time management, and effective communication,
alongside academic skills such as critical thinking, evaluation of
existing research, data analysis and academic writing.
Consultancy project (choice between consultancy project and
dissertation)
The consultancy project gives participants the opportunity to
consolidate their learning to date in the form of an intensive
piece of academically rigorous research focused on their own
organisation (or another organisation to which they have access).
Participants are expected to identify a problem or issue of concern
to the organisation and then undertake the research necessary to
collect relevant data and produce suitable recommendations that are
likely to benefit the organisation. Participants undertaking this
project will have the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills
which they have learnt on the modules previously taken.
During the course of completing the consultancy project
participants will further develop key employability skills such as
creative and strategic thinking, time management, and effective
communication, alongside academic skills such as critical thinking,
evaluation of existing research and data analysis.
Electives
Participants will study two electives – one in their first year
and one in their second year.
Luxury and Bespoke Travel
Luxury travel is one of the growth areas within the travel
industry and there are a growing number of high net worth
travellers from countries such as Russia, Brazil, China, India and
the Middle East, helping the luxury travel sector to buck the
recessionary trend. At the same time elements of luxury travel have
become more affordable to a wider segment of aspirational
consumers.
Those who plan to work in the luxury travel sector need to
combine management and business skills with a keen understanding of
what luxury means to consumers and what motivates consumers of
luxury brands. This elective builds on key concepts relating to
marketing, strategy, HR and so on and examines how they apply
within the context of luxury travel and tourism. Additionally the
module considers the ethics and sustainability of luxury travel and
tourism and examines ways in which the sector can respond to future
challenges.
Business Travel
This module is designed to give participants a more detailed
insight into the operations of business travel organisations.
Participants will gain an overview of the international business
travel industry, its structure and key players as well as an
insight into some critical processes such as setting up requests
for proposals, negotiating long term contracts and managing
capacity throughout the year.
Participants will also consider current trends in international
business travel and examine the effect of the external operating
environment on international business travel organisations as well
as gaining an understanding of the requirements of business travel
customers and the way in which they differ from leisure travellers.
Participants will gain a number of practical employability skills
such as the art of contract negotiation and dealing with the
particular needs of business customers that will be extremely
useful to them should they wish to work in a business travel
organisation in the future.
International Destination Management
This module provides participants with an understanding of
international destination management and will focus on the
destination planning aspects of the discipline. It will explore the
complex interplay of factors that inform and shape its processes
and outputs.
Participants will gain an insight into the political, planning,
funding and societal contexts that underpin international
destination management and the complex partnership and stakeholder
relationships that influence these processes.
This module will pick up ideas introduced in earlier core
modules, particularly relating to strategy and marketing. The
module will address employability in the sector by introducing real
life case studies into the learning sessions. It will also draw on
the expertise of destination management professionals currently
working in the sector to give a contemporary employer-led
perspective to the knowledge base taught on the module.
International Hospitality Management
The module will focus particularly on the management and
delivery of services within the context of international
hospitality as well as on the development of international
hospitality products. The primary goal of the module is to bring
together theory and operational application in the context of
international hospitality. Participants will gain a good
understanding of how hospitality fits into the broader travel and
tourism industry. The module focuses on encouraging participants to
relate theory to practice and the emphasis on real world examples
encourages the development of how academic theory can apply in
participants’ own work environments.
Managing Transport Operations
The transport sector is large and includes air travel, rail
travel, coach and bus travel and water-borne transport (cruises and
ferries), together with heritage transport and personal transport.
Businesses in the sector face many challenges in society today, but
the most obvious of these is the environmental impact of transport,
together with issues around congestion and access in urban
destinations.
The management of transport affects both the businesses managing
it and those planning for transport, and requires a thorough and
critical analysis of a wide range of issues, together with careful
and effective communication with a wide range of stakeholders.
Technology also plays an important role in the sector and, together
with transport planning and management is one of the key topics
explored in this module.
Sport Events Management
Sport Events Management is a rapidly growing area in the
international sports industry. This module aims to introduce the
student to this dynamic industry using practical experiences in the
field supported by the theoretical underpinning. As with the
international travel and tourism industries as a whole, the sport
events industry provides many varied employment opportunities for
graduates of this degree. A range of industry-specific and business
management skills will be emphasized during the module.
Prospective employers in the sport events industry cite
practical application as being paramount when engaging staff. The
need to produce employable course graduates will guide the teaching
and assessment strategy for this module. This will include ensuring
that participants are made aware of the technological advances that
have been and continue to be made in the industry and where
possible gain practical experience of new technology.
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Page last updated 1/19/2012