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International Hotel and Tourism Management

MSc

Find out more about our courses by joining a live master’s webinar

Start dates: January 2025 / September 2025 / January 2026 / September 2026

Full time: 1 year or 2 years in sandwich mode which includes one year's full-time paid supervised work experience (a work placement).

Part time: 24 months for UK and EU students (teaching normally provided on one day or two half days each week during semesters.)

Location: Headington

Department(s): Oxford Brookes Business School

Overview
Course details
Careers
Entry requirements
How to apply
Tuition fees

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Overview

A great hotel isn’t just about a clean room and a well-made bed. A successful visitor attraction is more than a good layout and interactive displays. To give guests an incredible experience, there needs to be effective leaders who keep the business profitable and make everything run smoothly. On our MSc International Hotel and Tourism Management course, we will help you acquire the skills and knowledge to be a leader in the sector.

Not many courses can take you from a novice with no prior knowledge in hospitality and tourism to a competent leader in your industry. With the assistance of our experienced academics, and the right attitude and application, it’s possible with this degree.

Our focus on employability means you’ll be exposed to the sort of organisations you want to be working for and immerse you in the industry from day one. You’ll have time to work alongside your study – perhaps as a hotel concierge or supervisor at a visitor attraction. Many of our students who work for hotels and tourism organisations during their studies are offered positions after graduation.

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Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Client project

    Complete a traditional dissertation or challenge yourself and leave your comfort zone by working closely with an organisation to help address an issue they’re facing.

  • Focus on employability

    From shadowing professionals to attending field visits and practitioner-led lectures, you’ll experience the industry throughout the course. You’ll expand your network and prepare for your career.

  • Learn from leaders

    We’re one of the few UK universities to offer a course in hotel and tourism management. Optional modules specialise in these areas.

  • Pick your priority

    Shape your study throughout the course with optional modules. It’s up to you whether you focus on operations or financial management – a choice you’re unlikely to get elsewhere.

  • Be part of The Bacchus Mentoring Scheme
    The Bacchus Mentoring Scheme offers Hospitality, Tourism and Events students a range of opportunities such as mentoring, careers advice and industry engagement events, led by experienced professionals who work at some of the leading hotel groups in the world.

Course details

Course structure

You will learn everything you need to know about working in international hotel and tourism management. Learn to effectively manage employees in hotels, as well as how digital marketing is shaping hotel and tourism organisations.

You will acquire the skills needed to carry out industry-relevant research to draw your own conclusions and make a real difference.

Our flexible course gives you the choice of either focusing on responsible financial management or hospitality operations management. You’ll also pick from a range of elective modules covering topics like dark tourism and sustainable events management.

Everything you learn will help you complete your final project, which may be a dissertation that explores a topic in depth. You may also choose a live client project where you’ll look at a real-world issue for a business in the sector. A recent project included formulating recommendations for a volunteer recruitment and retention strategy for a Pride organisation. This is a critical challenge for both large-scale and community event organisations. 

Students discussing subject

Learning and teaching

Below is a brief overview of how the IDEAS framework is applied in programme’s teaching and learning:

  • Inclusive Learning - We create an environment that supports the learning needs of a diverse range of learners, which includes but is not limited to international students, non-native speakers of English, LGBTQI+ students and students with disabilities.
  • Digital Inclusion - We offer support and training in digital technologies used within our learning environments.
  • Employability Learning - A practice-focused pedagogy, which includes action-based, risk-embracing, authentic, relevant, experiential teaching and learning.
  • Assessment for Learning - Assessment strategies provide a variety of assessment types, including group and individual work.
  • Sustainability Mindset - Students are familiarised with standards and relevant codes of practice about subject areas such as the UN Sustainability Goals and the UNWTO’s sustainable tourism development guidelines

Assessment

Assessment is based predominantly on individual coursework and the dissertation.

Field Trips

The International Business in Practice Study Trip module allows you to experience ideas and practices of global business. During the trip you will have direct interaction with management executives and practices. You will: attend presentations from local management executives and experts; and go on site visits to major corporations and agencies. This study trip is voluntary and you will need to fund all costs associated with the trip. It is not linked to university assessments in any way.

We also run a study trip to Chengdu, China. If you choose the study trip (which runs in July), we will give you all the details by March so that you can make your decisions ahead of the trip in July.

If you successfully complete this non-credit bearing module, it will be recorded on your transcript as P58335 International Business in Practice: Study Trip.

Each year, there are opportunities to go on other field trips as part of your study programme at no extra cost such as visits to:

  • attractions
  • hotels
  • museums
  • the corporate office of a leading international hotel company.

Field trips are optional and you will need to cover the cost. Some field trips are subsidised or entirely free.

Start this course in January or September

You can start this course in January if a September start doesn't suit you or is not currently offered for this course.

If you start in January you will study a range of modules between January and May. During the summer months of June, July and August you will study further modules and begin work on your dissertation. Between September and December you will complete your final modules and focus on your dissertation.

Find out more about January entry

Study modules

Be industry ready when you graduate

By undertaking an enterprise work placement, you can gain valuable and relevant industry experience and develop transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, networking and problem solving. A work placement can help you decide on your long-term career objectives and may lead to a job offer after graduation (would require visa sponsorship for international students).

The WAVES (Work and Voluntary Experience Service) or Careers Office will provide you with support and advice to get ahead in your career, and help you with your CV and applications. The team has access to a wide range of small, medium and large employers that offer postgraduate student work placements.

If you wish to pursue a placement at a particular company, our WAVES team can support you in making an approach to the company. Our Careers Office can also provide you with advice on how to use professional social media channels to pitch yourself to prospective employers.
 

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

  • Managing International Hotel Employees

    You will explore academic real life business practice as it relates to managing people (employees) within hotels, which includes key understanding how managing people is linked to business strategies, and how to manage people of varying cultural diversity, as well as the aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

  • Digital Marketing and Consumer Experience

    You will explore the nature of digital marketing in the global visitor economy and how this is transforming the nature of tourism, hospitality and events. You will also develop a digital marketing plan using an omni channel approach for diverse cultures.

  • Global Visitor Economy

    You will be introduced to the visitor economy and look specifically at the sectors of tourism, hospitality and events. You will develop knowledge and understanding of how these sectors work together in contemporary societies.

  • Research Methods in Hospitality, Events and Tourism Management

    This module is geared towards the preparation for, and successful completion of, high quality, rigorous and systematic hospitality, events and tourism management research. It underpins the range of capstone modules offered by the Business School and is of general relevance to the successful completion of coursework.

  • Mentoring and Leadership Development

    You will develop an in-depth understanding of leadership theory and practice. Your understanding of leadership theory will increase by engaging with contemporary debates on leadership in the hospitality, events and tourism industries, with a particular focus on ethical leadership. You will develop your professional competences and understanding of leadership practice through participation in the school's Bacchus Mentoring Programme, which will match you with a mentor from the international hospitality, events or tourism industry.

Optional modules

Dark Tourism

This module aims to introduce students to the context and practice of dark tourism within the hospitality, tourism, and events industries. Students are introduced to the conceptual and practical development of dark tourism; its scale and scope, which includes a wide range of international case studies of dark visitor attractions, dark accommodations, and dark festivals and events; as well as the underpinning issues and challenges relating to the management of dark tourism experiences, including ethical concerns, authenticity, and experience design.

Planning and Delivering the Sustainable Event

The module is based on ISO 20121 Sustainable Events Management; this is a global industry standards framework, and focuses on key principles and concepts of international events management to the delivery of a real world event.

Global Events and Society

The module focuses on three themes: the social and cultural contexts in which events take place; the various stakeholders who affect and are affected by events; and the social, cultural, environmental, economic and political impacts of events for states, regions, organisations, groups and individuals.

Revenue Management

This module introduces you to key concepts within Revenue Management such as capacity management, dynamic pricing and forecasting. To fully understand how to apply revenue management within hospitality and tourism businesses, you need to be aware of the relationship between price and value and how this influences customer purchase decisions. Other electives may also be available.

Core optional modules

Optional modules

You can focus your core programme on either the finance or operations and choose one from:

Responsible Financial Management

You will be introduced to key concepts, theories and techniques in responsible financial management. You will be given a concise introduction and explanation of financial accounting, management accounting and core elements of responsible financial management.

Hospitality Operations Management

You will be introduced to key concepts in financial, human resource, marketing, events and tourism management by developing a deep understanding of operations management in these contexts. You will also work in a group, using a computer-based hotel business simulation exercise, to carry out research and agree recommendations to develop hospitality operations.

Work Placement (sandwich mode)

Optional modules

Enterprise Work Placement

If you decide to take the sandwich mode your year of full-time taught study will be followed by one year of full-time, supervised work experience. The time on supervised work experience is paid and spent with a suitable international hospitality and tourism employer. You carry out an assessed project for the company as part of your academic studies on the placement. You'll expand your enterprise skills in the context of the workplace. The focus will be on building your intrapreneurial mindsets during your placement, helping you to develop the curiosity, creativity, vision and resilience to be successful in a variety of organisations. The placement will enable you to drive innovation in one or more of the following areas: ethical business behaviour, inclusivity, responsible management, sustainability, digitalisation and internationalisation. Drawing on your research skills you'll propose evidence based innovative solutions to your placement organisations’ challenges.

Final project

Compulsory modules

  • Research Project

    This module allows you to demonstrate a wide range of skills such as research, critical thinking, project planning, problem-solving and writing/oral skills. You could choose to complete an extended piece of independent research typically described as a "dissertation". Alternatively you may choose a "client project", which is a piece of research undertaken on behalf of an organisation to solve a real-life problem.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Research

We are recognised as a centre of excellence for research in international hospitality and tourism.

Our aim is to conduct rigorous research that:

  • advances academics' understanding of the management of national and international hospitality and tourism organisations and destinations
  • addresses the needs of organisations and policy-makers
  • informs teaching and learning practices.
Researcher using a laptop in a quiet space

Careers

This industry is different. It’s easy to get started and employers are hungry for graduates.

If you see yourself working at management level at a global hotel chain, we’ll help you get there. Your leadership skills are something that will really make you stand out to employers after you graduate.

Our graduates go on to work for leading hotel and tourism brands in a wide range of roles either in the UK or internationally. These include:

  • Accor
  • Compass
  • Carnival
  • Four Seasons
  • Hilton
  • Hyatt
  • IHG
  • Shangri-La
  • Mandarin Oriental
  • Marriott
  • Radisson
  • Sodexho
  • Sol Melia
  • Starwood
  • TUI.

Our optional one-year work placement is a great opportunity for those who would like to gain work experience in the hotel or tourism industry after the course. We’ll help you find a placement and offer you support throughout so you make the most of this opportunity.

Our Staff

Dr Kate Mingjie Ji

Prior to my academic position, I worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior auditor. My professional expertise is auditing, accounting and applied finance.

Read more about Kate
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Dr Kate Mingjie Ji

Prior to my academic position, I worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior auditor. My professional expertise is auditing, accounting and applied finance.

Read more about Kate

Related courses

Related course
International Hospitality, Events and Tourism Management
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Entry requirements

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process


Apply now

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£11,150
Home (UK) part time
£5,575
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,100
International full time
£17,650
International sandwich (placement)
£2,100
Home (UK) full time
£11,600
Home (UK) part time
£5,800
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,200
International full time
£17,750
International sandwich (placement)
£2,200

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Tuition fees

2024 / 25
Home (UK) full time
£11,150
Home (UK) part time
£5,575
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,100
International full time
£17,650
International sandwich (placement)
£2,100
2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£11,600
Home (UK) part time
£5,800
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,200
International full time
£17,750
International sandwich (placement)
£2,200

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

The full-time fees quoted are for the taught Year 1. Fees will be charged for the placement year in Year 2 and are available on request from finance-fees@brookes.ac.uk. For approximate fee levels of the placement year see the placement fee above.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support. 

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Financial support and scholarships

For general sources of financial support, see our Fees and funding pages.

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.