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Introduction
Why choose this course?
Course structure
We’ll sharpen your academic skills, boost your global industry knowledge and provide training in areas like finance and HR.
Throughout the course, we’ll set you real, live projects to help you put your skills into action. Perhaps you’ll design a destination concept or put together a journey plan.
As you progress on the course, you’ll explore destination product development and digital marketing for tourism from a global perspective. With our choice of optional modules, you might also decide to look at tourist behaviour, explore business strategy or study processes around innovation.
To apply what you’ve learned so far, you’ll have the chance to go on placement. Past students have gained work experience at big names like Marriot, Mandarin Oriental and Four Seasons. There are also opportunities to work with smaller operators too.
In your final year, you’ll get ready to move from student to professional. You’ll focus on sharpening your skills and completing your dissertation or consultancy project. For many students, this is inspired by challenges they encountered on their placement.
Overview
What impact does tourism have on residents and the environment? Who are the stakeholders you need to think about when developing destinations? How can the sector deal with digitisation and automation? Join our BSc (Hons) International Tourism and Hospitality Management to address the challenges faced by global tourism businesses and discuss the impact of the digital world on the sector.
You’ll experience first-hand how professionals deal with these challenges successfully. We organise guest lectures and visits to organisations such as St James Court Hotel, Hilton, Mandarin Oriental, Royal Albert Hall, Oxford Artisan Distillery, Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons.
Our teaching team are leaders in this field. They’ll share their research findings, consultancy projects and working experience. You’ll meet other professionals and create your own network by working with our industry mentors and completing a placement in the UK or further afield.
If you want to focus on leading and professional experience, our BSc (Hons) International Tourism and Hotel Management is the right choice for you.
Modules
Year 1
Compulsory modules
Building Professional and Academic Skills for Success
This module will provide you with effective personal and professional skills on which to base your academic study and professional careers in the tourism, hospitality and events industries and is an integral element of the transition to University learning. You will be learning the rules of academic study, acquiring and developing skills to support both your academic and professional careers.
The Experience Economy
The experience economy, comprising the tourism, hospitality and events industries, has significant positive and negative effects on places. This module introduces the Experience Economy via a set of in-depth case studies, focusing on specific places. In each case study you will be introduced to a specific Experience Economy example, including at least one international event, one tourism destination and one hospitality industry case. The module will include short field trips and site visits, some virtual, including at least one aspect of Oxford’s significant visitor economy, and one international case.
Developing and Planning Experiences of Tourism, Hospitality and Events
This module introduces you to the theoretical and contextual aspects of developing and planning memorable experiences, preparing you to organise your first experience industry products. The module also gives you the opportunity to explore planning for sustainable and responsible practice.
Delivering Experiences of Tourism, Hospitality and Events
This module introduces you to the practical aspects of designing and delivering live experiences and there is a focus on developing understanding of the links between strategy, decisions and outcomes for an experience and its stakeholders.
Management in International Tourism, Hospitality & Events
Every aspect of the business such as management, marketing and finance is based on key techniques. In this module we will introduce these to you with a specific focus on the business realities in tourism, hospitality and events. The techniques from the basic building blocks of academic knowledge are essential to the student experience.
Global Industry Contexts in Tourism, Hospitality and Events
This module aims to introduce you to the context within which the highly dynamic international tourism, hospitality and events industries operate. This includes a comprehensive overview of the composition, scale and scope of the industry. Historic, current and anticipated trends, developments and challenges will be examined, not the least in the light of the UN principles of sustainable development.
Optional modules
Foundations of Marketing
The aim of this module is to introduce you to the concept of creativity and its role within a marketing context. You will explore creativity in general terms and how it manifests within marketing practice. You will also have an opportunity to develop your own creativity skills in relation to a range of marketing scenarios and audiences.
Digital Technology and Maths for Business
This module introduces foundations of business information management to understand the potential of digital technologies. You will gain essential numerical, modelling and IT-skills, and will learn to manipulate data in order to create meaningful and user-friendly management information. These skills are taught in a business and problem-oriented way, using simplified business problems, combining several skills for each problem.
Global Business Communications
This module aims to equip you with the skills needed to communicate effectively as a manager in a global environment, highlighting the importance of intercultural exchange as central to modern business and organisational practice. The module is an introduction to the use of oral and written communication in an international context using a variety of supporting technologies and formats.
Work, Employment and Globalisation
To give you an understanding of the complex and dynamic challenges of contemporary global labour markets, you’ll explore contemporary issues about work, employment and global labour markets throughout this module. And you’ll investigate the changing nature and organisation of work, inequalities at work, migration and labour mobility, identity at work, and the digital economy. These issues will be examined using a variety of institutional, organisational and individual theoretical perspectives.
From exploring post-industrial work and society within different institutional contexts, you’ll gain a key understanding of issues of diversity and inclusion at work, while gaining the intellectual skills required to critically research and review literature.
Year 2
Compulsory modules
Professional Skills and Preparing for Employability
On this module you'll build on your acquired professional skills from your first year module Building Professional and Academic Skills for Success to help you further prepare you for your future employment. You'll be able to reflect on your experiences and increase your self-awareness about the skills that you'll need to gain employment in the tourism, hospitality and events management sector as you work through your live projects.
Managing People in Hospitality, Tourism and Events
This module will help you build on your first year learning. You’ll be able to identify and analyse the characteristics of managing people in Tourism, Hospitality and Events labour markets. Also, you’ll gain knowledge of theory and practices associated with managing culturally diverse people and workforces in these sectors. You’ll evaluate critically contemporary people management theoretical approaches utilising a range of independently researched evidence to support your arguments.
You’ll analyse relevant theoretical propositions for international Tourism,Hospitality and Events sectors. To build your understanding of managing people in these sectors. And you’ll also engage with current debates concerning the diversity and inclusion, culture and cultural differences and ethical management of diverse workforces to develop your key management skills in Tourism, Hospitality and Events.
Destination Product Development
You’ll explore how tourism products are conceived and developed in destinations. You’ll examine the roles of different stakeholders, including:
 governments
 tour operators
 local communities
 accommodation providers.
You’ll develop your understanding of the economics of destination development, the relevance of place and the role of place-making in supporting the development of sustainable destinations. You’ll progress and gain the skills needed to manage and develop a tourist product/experience, like:
 negotiation skills
 undertaking product orders
 understanding tourism regulatory frameworks
 and quality management.
Methods of Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Events
Develop your critical research methods that can be used in the industry to provide the foundations for evidence based decision making. You will look at qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as developing your background knowledge that underpins research efforts. The knowledge you’ll acquire on this module will lay the foundation for you to use on your later research projects and in your future employment.
Destination Development and Practice
You’ll be tasked with developing a destination, or a tourism product, drawing from a number of provided examples. Helping you put the knowledge you’ve gained into practice. Also you’ll learn how to
 identify and engage key stakeholders
 how to identify, manage and mitigate risk
 how to establish key targets and performance indicators
 how to monitor and manage progress against these indicators
 how to deal with the impact of change on the project
 how to develop and implement post evaluation (environmental, social and economic)
to capture learning from the experience. Including if necessary, an exit and legacy strategy. While you focus on developing understanding of the links between strategy, decisions and outcomes for all stakeholders – internal and external.
Marketing and Digital Transformations
This is your introduction to the core principles of marketing within the current digital environment. You’ll develop an understanding of the current changes in digital marketplaces and the need to adapt Tourism, Hospitality or Event (THE) products and services for those markets. Also you’ll explore the discipline of Digital Marketing in the wider context of service industries’ marketing activities combining theoretical foundations with a hands-on approach to the topic. You’ll have the opportunity to work in teams to audit an existing THE brand and/or develop your own team brand, draft a marketing plan and engage in the creation of a realistic digital marketing campaign.
Revenue Management and Financial Essentials
Managing revenue effectively is of ultimate importance to maximising value and profit for the Hospitality, Tourism and Event industry. Management of revenue involves a co-ordinated application of a range of financial, operational and marketing skills, ranging from
 price determination
 demand forecasting
 customer value perception
 inventory control
 to channel distribution management.
On this module you’ll examine all these topics and it will give you a holistic insight into Revenue Management from a combined financial and customer-centric approach. Your study will help prepare you for a fast-tracked career in the hospitality industry, in the Revenue Management area. You’ll finish this module equipped with the financial knowledge to tackle your final year financial modules.
Placement Search and Preparation (Compulsory for sandwich mode)
This module provides you with practical guidance and support as you undertake a placement search, and helps prepare you for the placement experience and its related assessment requirements. It integrates with other employability related learning experiences, including co-curricular activities, which you may be undertaking.
Optional modules
Business Strategy for Competitive Advantage
You will develop knowledge and critical understanding of the classical principles of business strategy in exploring the question 'How should organisations compete to achieve sustainable, competitive advantage in today's global business environment?’ In answering this question, the potential of an organisation to create value through effective exploitation and development of internal resources and capabilities is examined using well-established analytical tools.
On successful completion of this module, you will be able to analyse and evaluate the relative impact of the international industrial and competitive environment on organisations and the strategic choices they face, apply decision-making criteria and weigh risks appropriately.
Creativity and Innovation
You’ll gain the underpinning theory, concepts and also some basic skills to understand and engage in the processes of creativity and innovation. You’ll take a holistic approach to look at this subject from a variety of angles. This could be from an
 academic perspective
 an organisational perspective
 a management consultancy perspective
 an entrepreneurial perspective.
You’ll also have the opportunity and be supported to release and express more of your own creative potential. You’ll explore why creativity and innovation is increasingly being viewed as the key to competitive advantage in the New Economy.
Environmentally Sustainable Business
You’ll look at the environmental sustainability challenges facing society and businesses. You’ll discuss key environmental issues such as:
 global warming
 pollution
 biodiversity loss
 freshwater depletion
and the role of business in causing as well as responding to such issues.
You’ll explore macro (economic, policy, governance) as well as micro (organisational and individual) perspectives. You’ll also be introduced to a variety of stakeholder perspectives and frameworks for evaluating business responses. Through the module you’ll develop your key competencies for sustainability that are endorsed by UNESCO (2017) and the QAA/Advance HE (2021). The competencies are:
 systems thinking
 anticipatory thinking
 normative competency
 strategic thinking
 collaborative competency
 critical thinking
 self-awareness
 integrated problem-solving competency.
Independent Study in Business
This is your opportunity for independent study on an approved topic. It will relate to your programme learning outcomes. You’ll select and discuss a relevant topic area with your Programme Lead/Subject Co-ordinator. Your independent study may involve:
 action based learning
 be based solely on desk research
 limited primary research
 group work.
And will be self directed. Through any group work you may have a specific role and responsibilities.
Tourist Behaviour
You’ll explore and critically analyse theories, models and frameworks of tourist behaviour drawn from a range of social science disciplines such as:
 Anthropology
 Sociology
 Psychology
 Geography
 and Politics.
You’ll be able to relate theory to practice through evaluation of academic and non-academic material. You'll also reflect on tourist narratives (e.g. social media) and your personal experiences. Finally, you’ll assess the relevance of the above to applied tourism management (especially destination management).
Wedding Planning and Celebratory Events
You’ll explore the socio-cultural origins and place in society of a range of celebratory events, such as:
 weddings
 anniversaries
 celebrations of birth and death.
You’ll critically review the religious, ethnic and social associations of such events in various settings. Also you’ll apply the key practical and creative requirements of designing and staging such events.
Through your studies you’ll develop core events skills like taking a client brief, managing stakeholders and events communications. You’ll have the opportunity to work with a live client brief. Practising your core skills you’ll acknowledge the cultural expectations of the client, and reflect on difference and opportunity, to celebrate diversity.
Year 3 (placement year)
Optional modules
Supervised Work Experience
This module helps you to develop the competencies required by graduate employers. You will undertake a placement in a hospitality, tourism, and events organisation to give a significant length of time to experience the realities of work.
Year 4 (or year 3 if no placement)
Compulsory modules
Leadership and Professional Development in Tourism & Hospitality
You will be challenged to advance your reflective skills and reassess the personal ability to effectively manage a diverse range of relationships. Also you’ll look at authentic leadership skills within the international hospitality and tourism industries.
By the end of the module, you will have developed
 leadership knowledge
 competencies and skills by using your own work
 university and/or community-based experiences to explore key relationships
 professional sector competencies
 and how to evaluate contemporary leadership challenges.
Research Project of Tourism, Hospitality and Events
Through this Research Project you’ll have the opportunity to conduct sustained, self-directed, independent work through an in-depth study of a hospitality or tourism-related topic where you can analyse theory, evaluate it and apply it to examining practice.
Tourism Impact Analysis
You’ll focus on the study of the range of nature and type of impacts associated with tourism and tourists on the
 Environment
 Economy
 Society.
Including approaches to impact assessment and management to ensure that the tourism and hospitality industry benefits from them.
Optional modules
Business Analytics for Hospitality and Tourism
You will build skills in thinking logically and critically about complex managerial issues that hospitality organisations face today and structure solutions with a data-driven approach.
You’ll develop your understanding of the content, importance and relevance of business analytics and data visualisation in business decision-making with a focus on the hospitality and tourism industry.
You will gain knowledge of the key concepts and methods combined with extensive opportunities to develop your hands-on skills for applying business analytics and data visualisation to managerial decision-making.
Business Ethics
This module is designed to address our changing world that is facing social and environmental challenges. You’ll develop the capacity to make ethically defensible decisions as members of business organisations and of society in general. You’ll analyse and evaluate the ethical propositions of others. And, you’ll evaluate the ethics of different systemic models of production, distribution and exchange.
Upon completing this module, be able evaluate and apply ethical reasoning to local and global business dilemmas and economic systems, and you’ll be able to evaluate the significance of a range of western and non-western ethical perspectives.
Contemporary Consumer Behaviour
This module builds on students’ previous marketing knowledge by developing a thorough understanding of the theories of consumer behaviour and their appropriate application in different organisational contexts. It examines decision-making processes, consumption or product usage and post consumption behaviours. The module is important because the actions of consumers lie at the heart of modern marketing theory and practice.
Contemporary issues in International HRM
This module enables you to review and develop disciplinary knowledge and research skills within a contemporary global context. The module adopts a broad definition of `international human resource management', to include issues relating to the impact of diversity management, national culture, the debates in the comparative HRM literature and examples of differences in the way HRM is conducted around the world. It also examines how international organisations deal with the extra complexity that operating internationally brings to HRM.
Current issues will also be examined including the foreign vs. local staffing debate, women expatriates, joint venture issues and issues surrounding cross-cultural management.
Entrepreneurship and Creativity Enterprise in Hospitality and Tourism
You will be exposed to what is involved in being a successful entrepreneur in the Hospitality and Tourism industry sectors. Also you’ll learn techniques to foster creativity and innovation.
You’ll undertake informed reflection on your entrepreneurial predispositions and have the opportunity to work up and present an idea for your own potential venture to a panel of expert entrepreneurs.
Financial Decision Making for Hospitality and Tourism
Explore how the assets of a hospitality and tourism organisation are effectively managed on behalf of internal and external stakeholders and key techniques of financial decision-making for hospitality and tourism organisations. Also, you will get the opportunity to analyse and interpret the Annual Report and Accounts of a publically listed Hospitality or Tourism business.
You’ll look at hospitality and tourism financial reports, where you build your skills and knowledge of:
 uniform accounting systems
 responsibility accounting
 hotel industry studies and comparative analysis.
 content and interpretation of annual reports of hospitality and tourism businesses
 hotel management contracts
 franchising
 business valuation
 capital project appraisal methods
 responsibilities of the asset manager within the owner/operator context
 contemporary financial issues.
Food, Drink and Culture
You’ll have the opportunity to explore complex relationships between food and drink, individuals and societies.You will build your critical thinking skills and be able to argue and present about the extensive implications of food and drink-related practices for society.
You’ll analyse a variety of factors that shape these relationships and examine the
 consequences for health
 environment
 distinctiveness of cultures
 cohesiveness of communities.
Independent Study
This is your opportunity to embark on independent study of an approved topic that relates to your learning outcomes. Your study will be conducted under supervision and you will select a relevant topic area from your course and you’ll need to get approval from the module leader.
Your study on this module can involve:
 action-based learning
 solely on desk research
 limited primary research.
International Business Strategies in Hospitality and Tourism
You will explore factors affecting the decisions related to the international business strategies of hospitality and tourism (H and T) organisations. You’ll also learn methods to evaluate various international expansion modes considering the political, economic and socio-cultural environments of potential destinations.
You’ll build appreciation of the risks associated with doing business in international markets by addressing transnational differences (with a particular focus on emerging markets) that affect the strategy, performance, and value of international H and T organisations.
You’ll have the oppportunity to critically reflect on the impacts of a globalised brand or brands on local markets and consider ethical, social and environmental effects of a company’s decision to expand internationally. You’ll also look at models for organising and managing an international network of operations and how to coordinate knowledge transfer across borders.
Optimising Hospitality Operations
You will explore the fundamental techniques and tools to analyse and improve operational capabilities of hospitality organisations. You will learn about commonly occurring application problems such as
 hotel/restaurant inventory control
 facility layout and workflow problems
 process and bottleneck analysis.
Also you’ll look at optimisation models that support hospitality procurement and purchasing functions, including labour productivity analysis and regulating waiting times.
By the end of this module you will have explored various case studies of the role of operations in building the competitive strengths of an organisation and in fulfilling its ultimate goal of creating value and delivering customer satisfaction.
Perspectives on International Management
This module aims to equip you with the skills and knowledge necessary to manage effectively in a globalised business environment. You’ll analyse a wide range of management practices, while also evaluating theoretical frameworks and conducting research on national cultures. You will evaluate the strategic implications of culture on business operations and HRM practices, while also developing the aptitude required to manage effectively across cultures.
Benefits to you include gaining a competitive edge in the job market by expanding knowledge about managing in a globalised world and navigating cross-cultural communication challenges. You will also broaden your horizons and increase your cultural awareness and sensitivity, enhancing your ability to work effectively with individuals from different backgrounds.
Entry Criteria
ENTRY REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
Home Office Share Code
For EU students only.
IF no Qualification
Please provide CV with at least 2 years of work experience, and employee reference letter.
Entry requirements
Specific entry requirements
Our standard entry requirement is three A-levels or equivalent qualifications. In some cases, courses have specific required subjects and additional GCSE requirements. In addition to A-levels, we accept a wide range of other qualifications including:
 the Welsh Baccalaureate
 the Access to Higher Education Diploma
 a BTEC National Certificate, Diploma or Extended Diploma at a good standard and in a relevant subject
 the International Baccalaureate Diploma
 the European Baccalaureate Diploma
 Scottish qualifications – five subjects in SCE with two at Higher level or one at Advanced Higher level, or three subjects in Scottish Highers or two at Advanced Higher level
 a recognised foundation course
 T-levels*.
 * T-levels are a relatively new qualification but are already included in the UCAS tariff. We welcome prospective students who are taking this qualification to apply. For some programmes with specific required subjects, particular subject areas or occupational specialisms may be required.
English language requirements
If English is not your first language then you will need to show that your English language skills are at a high enough level to succeed in your studies.
The entry requirement for your course will be expressed as an IELTS level and refers to the IELTS Academic version of this test. We are now also accepting the IELTS Indicator test, you can find out more about the test on the IELTS Indication site. The University however does accept a wide range of additional English language qualifications, which can be found below.
The university’s English language requirements in IELTS levels are as follows:
Course IELTS level
All other undergraduate courses 6.0 overall with 6.0 in reading and writing, 5.5 in listening and speaking
Law, Architecture, Interior Architecture, English Literature (including combined honours), English Literature and Creative Writing 6.5 overall with 6.0 in reading and writing, 5.5 in listening and speaking
Health and Social Care courses 6.5 or 7.0 overall with 6.5 or 7.0 in all components (see individual entries for course details)
Nutrition BSc (Hons) 6.5 overall with a minimum of 6.0 in each component
Built Environment Foundation,
Computing Foundation,
Engineering Foundation 6.0 with 6.0 in reading and writing, 5.5 in listening and speaking
International Foundation Business and Technology,
International Foundation Arts, Humanities and Law 5.5 overall with 5.5 in all skills
International Foundation Diploma 5.0 overall with 5.0 in all skills
If you need a student visa you must take an IELTS for UKVI test.
International Foundation Diploma (Extended pathway) 4.5 overall with 4.5 in all skills
If you need a student visa you must take an IELTS for UKVI test.
Entry requirements
Wherever possible we make our conditional offers using the UCAS Tariff. The combination of A-level grades listed here would be just one way of achieving the UCAS Tariff points for this course.
Standard offer
UCAS Tariff Points: 104
A Level: BCC
IB Points: 29
BTEC: DMM
Further offer details
Applications are also welcomed for consideration from applicants with European qualifications, international qualifications or recognised foundation courses.
Assessment
ASSESSMENT METHODS
1. INTERNAL ENGLISH TEST if you don't have an English accredited certificate
2. Academic Interview
Learning and teaching
With a strong vocational focus the programme incorporates live projects and practitioner involvement in the delivery and assessment of the modules. There is a mix of academic and practitioner input into teaching, assessment and feedback where possible. Practitioner involvement may work on a number of levels, through guest speakers, input into assessment task design, and assessing and feeding back to students on their problem-solving approaches and the practical viability of the solutions they devise.
Assessment
Assessment tasks take a variety of forms, reflecting students’ varied learning styles, the programme’s learning outcomes, and the demands of an enquiry-based learning approach, including:
 individual and group assignments
 case studies
 essays
 reports
 presentations
 participation in product design
 and, occasionally, time-restricted assessments.
The need for formative assessment early on in the programme of study, and, indeed throughout the programme is recognised fully, together with the value of feed forward opportunities provided by the programme structure. Face-to-face feedback is used to offer written feedback on at least one module at each level.
Career Opportunities
Careers
The hospitality and tourism industry is booming. But there’s a big issue – a lack of professionals with the right skills. At Oxford Brookes, we’ll give you the know-how to fill exciting roles around the world.
While you’re with us, we’ll also help you become entrepreneurial. This isn’t about starting your own business, it’s about being enterprising – thinking innovatively, taking responsibility and feeling confident in making decisions. However, if you do want to start your own enterprise, you’ll be in a great position.
Some graduates secure spaces on hospitality management employer graduate schemes, but you’ll also be a great fit for a range of roles like:
 operations manager
 visitor experience manager
 hotel manager
 events manager
 food and beverage manager.
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