What Can I Do With A Degree In Hospitality and Tourism?

Hos­pi­tal­i­ty is a broad and diverse indus­try. Most com­mon­ly hos­pi­tal­i­ty refers to work­ing in a hotel or restau­rant, but it can also include amuse­ment parks, retire­ment cen­ters, coun­try clubs, resorts, ski lodge, con­ven­tion cen­ters, cruise lines, air­lines, sta­di­ums, casi­nos, or any­where else where clients are host­ed. Any­where in the world that peo­ple trav­el to or gath­er for leisure is a hub of Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Tourism. And as a perk, the loca­tions peo­ple want to vis­it are also great places to live!

So, what exact­ly does hos­pi­tal­i­ty con­sist of? Quite lit­er­al­ly, it means “the friend­ly and gen­er­ous recep­tion and enter­tain­ment of guests, vis­i­tors, or strangers. Or, relat­ing to or denot­ing the busi­ness of hous­ing or enter­tain­ing vis­i­tors.” Hos­pi­tal­i­ty is the busi­ness of host­ing and enter­tain­ing guests, with tourism expand­ing that def­i­n­i­tion to spec­i­fy that these are out-of-town guests who are just visiting.

With­in each sep­a­rate busi­ness enti­ty in the hos­pi­tal­i­ty realm are sep­a­rate and dis­tinct roles:

• Restau­rants have the cooks, servers, hosts, bar­tenders, and managers
• In hotels, there are the concierge, book­ing man­ag­er, clean­ing staff, and restau­rant folks.
• A resort that has a spa or activ­i­ties will need estheti­cians, masseuses, surf/ski/etc instruc­tors, and appro­pri­ate management.
• Air­lines have the flight atten­dants, air­port lounge staff, and book­ing agents all engaged as hos­pi­tal­i­ty and tourism agents for the companies.
• Loca­tions like sta­di­ums and con­ven­tion cen­ters would focus more on event man­age­ment style hos­pi­tal­i­ty, tai­lor­ing the set-up of the loca­tion to the needs of the con­tract­ed event, incor­po­rat­ing ush­ers, lights/sound tech­ni­cians, tick­et­ing agents, in addi­tion to con­ces­sions workers.
• Cruise lines (and resorts) may also have child­care ser­vices and musical/theatrical per­for­mances to orga­nize and put on.
• For busi­ness­es cater­ing to an inter­na­tion­al clien­tele, there must also be trans­la­tors or mul­ti­lin­gual employees.

All these roles are hap­pen­ing simul­ta­ne­ous­ly from Hawaii to the Alps, Aus­tralia to Den­mark, Mada­gas­car to Seoul, and every­where in the world. With so many oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able around the world involv­ing so many dif­fer­ent types of work, a degree in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Man­age­ment can help pro­vide some clar­i­ty and struc­ture amidst the infi­nite pos­si­bil­i­ties. Our com­pi­la­tion of the 30 Best Online Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Man­age­ment Degrees nar­rows the field and helps sift through the best options available.

The method­ol­o­gy of the list was com­posed by ranked based on cost per cred­it hour, aver­age ear­ly salary after grad­u­a­tion, stu­dent to fac­ul­ty ratio, and grad­u­a­tion rates. All the data was pulled from the Nation­al Cen­ter for Edu­ca­tion Sta­tis­tics, payscale.com, and the school websites.

Start­ing your path to a degree in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Man­age­ment is the first step in a stim­u­lat­ing career that could take you any­where in the world! Whether you want to do event plan­ning, lead tours, and excur­sions, man­age book­ings, or learn any of the oth­er roles list­ed above, these Top 30 Online Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Man­age­ment Pro­grams will pre­pare you to thrive.

Relat­ed:

25 Best Bachelor’s in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Management

15 Best Online Bachelor’s in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Management

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Management

10 Most Afford­able Bachelor’s in Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Management