International Travel and Tourism Management
hi everyone and welcome to this ulster university destination ulster session this session is all about the bsc international travel and tourism management program which is designed to give you the key management skills to create an unforgettable experience in the worldwide and constantly evolving international travel and tourism industry my name is peter bone i'm the course director for the international travel and tourism management degree here at ulster university you have my email contact details on screen there should you wish to follow up um after you've heard from this particular session um you also have the relevant twitter um ieds there as well so if you wish to follow the main ulster university account on twitter or indeed myself as course director for this area please feel free to do so the rather than hashtag in relation to this particular course is ittm for international travel and tourism management so to give you an overview of what the session is going to cover uh we'll be looking at why travel and tourism in general is an area of study in an area of employability um in future uh why travel and tourism ulster uh university in particular uh give you a bit of an overview of the degree program itself and what that involves talk about some important areas such as student support while studying on a course like this and also of course the important area of future careers and employability so just to give you a flavor of what this session will cover so moving first then to why international travel and tourism management in general is something you might wish to consider it's very much a global industry um it's a global industry fueled by the human desire for experiences and that has meant that tourism has had a huge global impact it had reached the point by 2019 just before covet where we had reached 1.5 billion international tourists traveling the world each year that meant tourism had grown to such an extent that it was at that point accounting for one in ten jobs globally around the world and had become a key driver on a global basis of economic growth um as well now as we're only to be aware the covert pandemic affected all industries and industries like tourism of course and the ability to travel in particular um we're now at a stage of course where things are now recovering um and tourism has always been a resilient industry and a very innovative one that has adapted to different aspects of disruption different macro trends and so on that has affected it so we're seeing tourism well on the road to recovery at the moment um and we are destined to see it not only return to the kind of levels that we'd seen by 2019 you know but within a few years getting back to even building further and growing further beyond that as well what that has allowed us to do in beneficial terms as an industry is to look at new opportunities and how we developed and how we adapt to things as we go forward it's led to ideas for new business models in terms of how we structure different elements of the tourism industry it's very much led to refocus on the whole aspect of digital engagement and going hand in hand with that various aspects of environmental sustainability as well and we've seen a whole refocus initially on domestic tourism and what the media sometimes likes to call the staycation and how important that has been to tourism in the early stages of recovery that way so those are things that have become much more apparent much more important during the last few years but they are things that are now helping tourism and in the industry to adapt in terms of informing it as it were how it grows forward in that sense here in northern ireland uh with the courses based northern ireland's economy has been very much driven by the tourism industry in recent times as well we reached the point where we were getting over 5 million visitors in 2019 we had reached at that point for the first time tourism generating over 1 billion pounds in terms of revenue so very significant economically contributing in the region of 5.6 percent of gdp gross domestic products and making tourism a very healthy component of the country's economy reaching the point of having almost 10 000 hotel rooms available at any one time the giant's causeway on the north coast very much had become cemented as northern ireland's top leading visitor attraction in terms of visitor numbers and northern ireland have been receiving a lot more attention and receiving a much more positive international image and winning lots of accolades and awards for that as well one good example of that was when belfast and the causeway coast were declared as lonely planets top region to visit in 2018 survey of all regions in the world belfast and the causeway coast was written as the number one to visit in 2018 there building on that further we have seen in recent times some very specific aspects of tourism helping to showcase globally the best of what northern ireland here has to offer and very much adding to northern ireland's traditional uh tourism product that way and three of those areas in particular have been food tourism or food and drink tourism film or screen tourism and gulf tourism and northern ireland has been developing very strongly uh with its tourism in relation to all three of those um the food and drink um aspect of northern ireland has grown tremendously in recent years the quality of a lot of our artisan food and drink produce has been winning awards both locally nationally and internationally that way and has become much more of a feature of northern ireland tourism that way um filament's green tourism is another area of tourism has grown enormously in recent times in particular thanks to the worldwide success of the television show game of thrones which has showcased northern ireland scenery to the world through that very successful award-winning television show but there are lots of other examples of film and tv shows around that now produced and shot in northern ireland which are helping to attract tourists as well and gulf tourism um which has been an important part of northern ireland's tourism product for some time now but particularly in the past 10 to 15 years given the high profile of our top golfers from northern ireland at the top rankings of our best golf courses and the fact we've been hosting much higher profile competitions such as the open championship which came to royal port russian 2019 and will be returning again in 2025 those have been tremendously important for the image of northern ireland and for development of its tourism product as well so those are just three important examples of how tourism here has been developing that way those have been further integrated into wider context the body responsible for marketing the entire island of ireland to overseas international tourist tourism ireland their first new campaign in recent years was called fill your heart with ireland and as part of that global campaign they identified what they call six consumer passion points and to attract tourists to come to ireland and those six consumer passion points are views and landscapes living culture built heritage food and drink soft adventure and television and movies so you can see some of the key things associated with northern ireland that we mentioned previously they're highlighted within uh some of those six key consumer passion points as part of that tourism ireland global marketing campaign so that's some context in relation to travel and tourism industry both globally and locally here in northern ireland what about international travel and tourism management and ulster then as an area of study as a qualification so i'm going to start on that aspect by giving you a little bit of insight into the course content itself um here at ulster university and then we'll focus on how to other connected areas to that so in the first year you'll study the modules highlighted in red there on screen at the moment so in the first semester you'll study media creativity and experience global travel destinations and introduction to the leisure and tourism side of things in second semester of first year you'll study contemporary tourism management and action and food tourism festivals and events so as you can see it's very much a blend of key travel and or tourism focused modules combined with other areas of importance such as the whole aspect of media and creativity which is a very important area of skill and knowledge to have to be employable these days in most industries certainly very much so in the travel and tourism industry and the whole emphasis on media and creativity very much runs throughout the entire course um and you have other support modules there such as management action it is a management degree as well at the end of the day so you will study a number of key business and management modules as you go through the course as well in year two highlighted in red there you'll study areas such as transportation operations and tourism business research methods contemporary marketing people management accounting studies and landscape change and tourism so again you can see there are a number of key tourism modules transportation covering all modes of transport with a particular focus on the airlines and airport management side of things landscape change and tourism very much looked at the whole area of responsible tourism sustainability uh you know and how we manage um tourism itself but the landscape in particular for tourism how we manage that in a sensible and sustainable way um these days again combined with introducing you to more of those core management and business type modules in the second year um and while the names suggest that they are very business focused um the examples and the assessments that you do will still be very much tailored to the travel and tourism industry within the context of areas such as marketing people management and so on year three is normally a year's placement in industry or the opportunity to study abroad which i'll say a bit more about shortly and then the final year of the year four that you would come back to covers areas such as e-business strategy the whole digital side of tourism we look further at some contemporary issues affecting tourism um at the current time and in the near future uh you also study creating visitor experiences the very important area of tourism planning development and management so tourism planning at all levels from planning at site level for perhaps an individual visitor attraction right up to planning for tourism at the national and international level such as a tourist board might be doing in seoul you'll also choose to do an individual project and final year what we used to call a dissertation these days it takes the form of either what we call a research paper or if you're more entrepreneurial minded at that stage and family year you can undertake in the form of what we call a business plan as well and then you will then take one of the core business and management areas that you studied in year two and you will choose to specialize in one of those more focused management strategic level at the end of final year either management accounting contemporary marketing management or managing talent and productivity that one falling on from people management um in year two so that just gives you a flavor of some of the key subjects and modules that you would do throughout this course in international travel and tourism management now during the course you get the opportunity to conduct real consultancy work on live projects with industry organizations one very good example of where you get to do that in particular is in final year with the e-business digital strategy module where in small groups you get assigned and work with actual travel and tourism industry organizations where you get to analyze their current digital presence you work with them on creating new digital aspects and concepts including things like video creation and so on uh social media strategy etc you pull all of that together into a wider new digital strategy for the company and you then pitch that in teams uh what runs like a kind of dragon's den type event where you pitch what you come up with to a panel of industry experts including a manager or director from the industry business that you've been doing the consultancy work with as well and there are a number of prestigious industry awards that go with that kind of assessment as well so not just competing for your grades but competing for those important industry awards as well which really enhance your employability if you get to have those in your cv and your profile so this is very much a course that doesn't just ask you to do written reports essays those kinds of assessments there may be some of those of course but a lot of the assessment work is quite practical and does give you that all important opportunity to actually network and get involved with industry businesses for real and conduct actual consultancy work with those businesses so those kind of live digital business projects we feel are very important to enhance your qualification your learning your development and really make you highly employable in the industry these days those carry with them and that was just one example this happens across a number of modules from the course from year to year you get that opportunity to compete for industry awards as well and of course that can really enhance your cv on your profile one example there from a student in recent years uh karen who had done her final year consultancy work that way with uh the business the bushmill is in an award-winning hotel uh on the north coast of northern ireland here where they had redesigned their digital strategy and key digital tactics for them and in fact they had won one of those prestigious industry awards that that year from the origin digital company that way so that was just current posting on her social media on the linkedin platform um how delighted she was to have had that opportunity to do the consultancy but obviously even more delighted that their group had won that important industry award that way you will also uh on a course like this in international travel and tourism management get the opportunity through many of our industry contacts and partners to benefit from a host of volunteering opportunities so that can be a number of golf events and tournaments each year and we particularly had a great opportunity for our students in 2019 with the open that way and that will be happening again in 2025 as well we also have annual food and drink festivals and events and those kinds of things as well where again as you can see in the images there where students in this program get the opportunity to volunteer and take part in those important events and look very closely at the tourism impact that they're having what goes into organizing and maximizing the tourism impact from those as well and that really again adds value to your cv and your profile those the kinds of things that employers take note of and that will enhance your employability as well those kinds of volunteering opportunities also take place at some of our leading visitor attractions you can see in the image on screen there at the moment where a number of our students from the program took part in a volunteering um element to an event that was happening at the giants causeway northern ireland's top leading visitor attraction that way where students from the travel and tourism program got to work at that particular event which included uh visits from around 90 school pupils um in northern ireland um so or volunteers from the program that way had a great opportunity to work with those young people in terms of their interest in tourism in the future and so on as well another key part of the program is that we do take you out as often as we can to visit the industry so there'll be site visits and field trips and so on to various tourism locations there you have a photograph from uh or students visiting the new game of thrones studio tour visitor attraction uh not long after it opened they've been studying in class with myself about the whole area of film tourism and screen terrorism looking at game of thrones as a very successful case study example of that and then we took them along to give them the opportunity to see how that then is put into practice uh in terms of that creation of that new uh leading visitor attraction in northern ireland to do with film tourism and screen tourism and game of thrones and they not only got to experience it then as a visitor but got some important talks from the management staff at the visitor attraction itself and so again it's it's just bringing a life what you're studying in class and seeing how that is realized uh in terms of actual in that case visitor attraction and management degrees also designed as we said to include a placement year or a year study abroad so in your third year you can go into industry for a year we have contacts with lots of companies both at home and abroad all around the world where you can get a year's experience you can an additional diploma for that a diploma in professional practice as well and that can really boost enhance your employability upon graduation as well you can also opt in that third year if you wish rather than working in industry to study abroad for a year so we have connections across europe with connections in north america where you can go and study in a european or american university for a year taking further tourism related modules and enhance your profile and studies that way as well all of that can help boost what we call your specialist and your transferable skills to make you highly desired at home or abroad when you do graduate and in terms of career opportunities we've seen many of our graduates in the past 10 years go into these areas in particular so from tourism marketing digital marketing and strategy into visitor attraction management airport operations various aspects of tourism planning and although this course is not geared specifically to these areas a number of our graduates have gone on to work very successfully in event venue management and also hotel management as well why might you consider cool rain in particular for travel and tourism or travel and tourism management degree is based at the colerain campus well we're situated in the major tourism region it's a region of great spectacular scenery some amazing beaches it's a hugely significant area for leisure activities such as surfing and so on so you know you're studying tourism in an area that is very much cemented as a major tourism region we have some very modern state-of-the-art facilities on the colerain campus both in general and related to this area of study we place a high emphasis on this course on digital media everything from social media mobile applications to digital connectivity video creation wider digital strategy and so on and that's so important to this industry these days and knowledge in those areas will make you highly employable with some very highly qualified and experienced staff all of our staff teaching you will have tourism related qualifications at post graduate level a number of as myself included have also worked in the industry in the past as well and again quite a number of as myself include it do regular consultancy work with the travel and tourism industry too so we can bring the very latest things that we're doing that way into the classroom in terms of what we teach you and help you to develop your knowledge we've strong links with industry organizations and that can help with everything from good placement opportunities for you to bringing in those people to give talks to you on campus and to also taking you out as i said earlier to industry site visits and field trips um and so on so plenty of opportunities that we including as we said particularly in family year the opportunity to do live consultancy with some of those industry organizations as well we also place a high emphasis on mentoring support and guidance you're we do have to challenge you in any degree course but you're not on your own we do provide a lot of support and guidance and a lot of mentoring to help you as well um and that's something we very much place a strong emphasis on uh in colerain on a course like this with regard to that student support at ulster university um we do place a big emphasis on our student mentor scheme in particular um so normally we have a number of second year students when they're in their second year they will act as mentors to our new first-year students so when you first come in the course um you'd be assigned a mentor from year two um and there there is a point of uh you know contact to help you settle in during the first semester and even throughout the whole of the first year and not only are they there isn't a point of informal contact to me from time to time have a chat with have a cup of coffee with and so on uh they also several times a year will will take more structured workshops with you as well in terms of helping you with your first pieces of coursework and so on and who better to do that and give you some advice than than their own students who've been doing the kind of work you'll be doing just that year before so there's there's a lot of important mentoring going on particularly from our own students that are a little bit further on in the course from where you would be in terms of future careers we mentioned a little bit about that already everything from tourism marketing to airline management visitor attraction management tour operating including specialist areas of tour operations like gulf tourism for example digital tourism managers event managers hotel management and so on so a course like this really does keep your options up and gives you such a huge varied range of potential roles and potential sectors you can go into because travel and tourism is such a varied and dynamic industry that way in terms of showcasing some examples of good practice uh some examples from recent years rosie there rosie henderson rosie graduated from uh or degree in international travel and tourism back in 2017 um and rosie is now the market manager for the uk and ireland for expedia which i'm sure you know as one of the world's largest largest and most successful digital uh tourism organizations that way so rosie has done exceptionally well within within three to four years of graduating she had got to that point of being the uk and ireland market manager for expedia and you know mainly through uh not just what you studied in the course generally but particularly those modules in media and creativity finally your e-business digital strategy module where you do the consultancy on the digital side of things with life industry businesses rosie's grip had won the award that year she was able to talk about that interview and so on samantha slightly more recent examples the month they graduated from this degree in july 2021 and actually within a few weeks of graduating secured a management job as the digital marketing manager at the causeway hotel just beside our leading visitor attraction here uh on northern ireland's north coast so samantha another good example again on the digital side of tourism um and her group had won one of those prestigious um industry awards and final year as well for their work that way and that really helped them out to secure that good management position as say just within a few weeks of graduating from the course so both roseanne's a month are great examples there of graduate success that way another good example from slightly earlier is claire moles claire is a past tourism student from our department at ulster university as well uh and clara is now head of marketing for the new game of thrones studio tour visitor attraction in northern ireland which i mentioned earlier and there you can see a screenshot of claire actually being interviewed on sky news um about the opening of that new visitor attracts and so claire uh was a tourism student probably about 12 years ago so a little bit longer ago but again just a very good example of graduate success that way and now heading up marketing for one of our or leading visitor attractions in one of our newest visitor attractions in that way so the coloring campus as i mentioned earlier on is where this course is situated it has very modern teaching facilities we have a riverside theater on campus we have a multi-million pound state-of-the-art sports and leisure complex as well on campus it's an ideal part of the world if you're a door lover there's lots of surfing water sports walking trails mostly tourist attractions and leisure activities and so on as well um and the campus is very close to to both seaside resort towns of port russia and porsche that way so it is a fantastic part of the world to live work and study in that way as well um to sum up um this course really does give you the the management skills and knowledge to get involved in this very uh dynamic um and interesting and travel and tourism industry you're learning all that important travel and tourism industry knowledge along with key business and digital media skills as well and there's lots of support and aspects available for you that way you get a lot of real world experience through site visits field trips the opportunities to do consultancy work and so on with industry um you know and our career opportunities we've been through there several times you can see them listed again there on the table on screen but lots of varied career opportunities from a qualification like this and it is of course also accredited by what we call the institute of hospitality so it is a course that is industry recognized in that wider sense as well just to point out our courses are continually reviewed and updated so we do that on a regular basis as well so please be aware that modules might change for your year of entry um but by and large you'll have seen what the current course structure is through this session here if you do need more information of a general nature you can contact the university and follow them also at study at ulster.ac.uk in relation to that um be a number of other more general sessions like this available uh or not wider information with regard to applying through ucas and so on so thank you very much for your attention as part of this destination ulster event that is just to give you a lot more information with regards to international travel and tourism generally and in particular or degree in international travel and tourism management at ulster university's korean campus and hopefully we'll look forward to seeing you in future if you do make that your choice and your destination in terms of career thank you you
2022-05-19 08:18