Tourism is one of the fastest-growing and most important economic sectors in the world. According to the World Tourism Organization, more than 700 million tourists chose to travel in 2002; in 2001, international tourism accounted for $463 billion worldwide. It seems logical, therefore, that travel and hospitality organizations worldwide should be looking to business schools to train new managers for their hotels, restaurants, resorts, and airlines. In fact, a number of business schools and freestanding hotel schools around the world have dedicated themselves to just that cause.
[...]
The growth in hospitality degree programs has directly paralleled the growth in the tourism industry, according to Jeroen Oskam of the Maastricht Hotel Management School in the Netherlands. When a region sees an upsurge in tourism and competition increases, he says, “the quality of the tourist product becomes a decisive factor. At that point, hotels and other companies realize that having a well-prepared staff will be the key to success.”
Similarly, the changes in hospitality programs mirror the changes in the industry itself, Oskam notes. He expects the future of tourism to be affected by demographic factors such as aging populations, and economic growth in emerging countries that will lead them to welcome tourists. It’s inevitable that as hotels and restaurants are transformed from family-owned enterprises to multinational companies with thousands of employees, hospitality management programs will become more international in nature and focus on the challenges of running global corporations.
Accent on Flavor
While students in hospitality classes learn the basic functional disciplines of finance, marketing, and OB, specialty courses often define the programs. For instance, at the Maastricht Hotel Management School, students take courses on the sustainable development of tourist areas. [...]
Sharon Shinn, BizEd May/June 2003
Download full article at http://www.aacsb.edu/Publications/Archives/MayJune03/p42-47.pdf
