Do you have an interest in tourism that extends beyond sunshine, beaches and palm trees? Are you creative and communicative, with a passion for foreign cultures? Do you like to get things done and see projects through from start to finish? If your answer is ‘yes’, Tourism Management could be just the course you are looking for!
This course amounts to a total of 240 ECTS.
EU: 15 January /15 August
Non-EU: 1 November /31 May
The bachelor’s degree in Tourism Management is a worldwide recognised degree. With career opportunities still on the rise in this sector, you will qualify for a varied range of management, administrative and consultancy roles in the tourism industry across the globe. Potential future employers include tour operators like TUI and Thomas Cook, city branding companies, theme parks, cruise lines, airlines and government organisations. The course also provides you with the skills needed to start your own business.
As a tourism professional, you will specialise in travel products and services, acting as a central point of contact in a job that is different every day. The principles of sustainable tourism form the backbone of this programme. You learn everything about the impact of tourism on different cultures, the environment and the economic needs that play a central role in tourist destination. You have inspiring ideas about sustainable tourism concepts and know how to respond to changing trends in the industry.
Careers open to you after graduation include:
To be admitted to one of the bachelor programmes you must meet certain admission requirements. NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences recognises the following general international qualifications:
Furthermore, some of our bachelor programmes demand additional entry requirements. These can be found in the list of admissible diplomas. If your diploma is not mentioned in this list, please contact our Information and Registration Centre.
If you are aged 21 or older and would like to enrol at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, but do not currently meet the admission requirements, you are invited to register for the entrance examination.
Read more information regarding the 21+ entrance examination.
All non-EEA applicants are required to submit an English proficiency test with their application. Exceptions are made for students, who have had their preparatory education in a country where English is the official working and educational language. The language requirements for EEA students are the same as for Dutch students. If your diploma is listed here, the additional English language test is not required.
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences accepts three kinds of official language tests: IELTS, TOEFL and the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English.
View the comparison between the different scores.
Please note: If you do not have the appropriate level, it is possible to enrol in our English Preparatory Language Course.
Students with an appropriate high school level diploma (entry level for academic universities) may be eligible to follow a 3 Year Track Programme.
Have you previously done a tourism-related programme or do you have experience in this area? Then you may be eligible to do the Short Track course. This enables international students to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Tourism Management in a shorter amount of time, by having their prior learning and work experience accredited. The programme duration can be reduced to 1.5, 2 or 3 years, depending on your previous experience and qualifications.
The programme’s Admissions Committee decides whether students qualify for the Short Track programme on an individual basis. Please contact secretariaat.LT@stenden.com for further information.
If you would like to continue your studies after your bachelor’s degree and specialise further, we recommend that you enrol in one of our master programmes:
Should you choose the minor Tourism Geography & Planning during your bachelor programme, then you may enrol in the Cultural Geography Master at the University of Groningen.
The Tourism Management programme provides a strong focus on sustainable tourism. You will learn all about the cultural and environmental impact of tourism, as well as the economic interests that come into play, in other words: how you can use commercial services in developing destinations.
In your first year, you will discover the fundamentals of the tourism industry, including the role of nature, organisations, markets and other aspects of tourism. In addition to the general introduction, the four key elements of the course are Leadership, Management, Strategy and Decision-Making. You will discover the various ways of marketing tourism products and learn to create a tourism product of your own based on practical assignments or the resources of our ETFI research institute.
You will explore the sustainability aspects of tourism, how to find the right balance between people, planet and profit (aka the ‘triple bottom line’) and how to use various marketing tools to promote specific destinations. The course also takes an in-depth look at tour operating and service management.
During your third year, you will get to further develop your research skills and potential and conduct a significant piece of research in a group of four to five students. You then choose two electives (minor subjects) to specialise in a specific area of tourism management. You have the opportunity to do these minors at any of our campus sites in the Netherlands, Indonesia (Bali), Qatar, South Africa or Thailand (we refer to this as the ‘Grand Tour’) or spend a semester abroad at one of more than 200 partner universities of applied sciences.
The fourth and final year of your course is where you get to put to practice everything you have learned so far. You will complete a 7-month or 30-week internship anywhere in the world. Finally, you will write your dissertation to prove your academic capabilities to analyse and translate industry-related problems and present feasible solutions.
Tourism Management is a broad-ranging course. In your third year, you will have the option to specialise by taking a number of minors: these are electives in which you focus on a specific subject or expand your knowledge by taking an additional subject. This allows you to truly take charge of your education by ‘customising’ your course.
You can take these minors in the Netherlands or at one of the international campus sites located in Qatar, South Africa, Thailand or Indonesia (we call this the Grand Tour). You may also choose from minors offered by other courses and universities of applied sciences – this is all part of broadening your academic skills.
Some of the minors that you can choose from are:
Heritage Experience Management (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands):
Focuses on the management of natural and cultural heritage. Next to researching the tourist possibilities, students also focus on maintaining and protecting this heritage. On behalf of local companies, students work on – for example - the development of an app or an experience related to heritage.
Outdoor Leadership and Adventure (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands):
Focuses on planning and guiding/managing outdoor activities. Think of climbing, mountain biking, survival, etc. You learn in practice what it takes to be an entrepreneur in this industry; how do you set up a business, what does it mean to be a leader, which problems, opportunities and challenges do you have to face and how do you handle these? You will also learn to understand, develop and deploy sustainable tourism products and innovative strategies.
Community-Based Tourism (Thailand):
Focuses on small-scale tourism in developing countries in cooperation with development organisations and the tourism industry. Read more about Community-Based Tourism.
International Destination Branding (Qatar):
Explores how events are used to create a brand identity and, as a result, make a destination competitive.
Tourism Geography & Planning (Leeuwarden):
A new pre-master programme on Geography and Tourism. The programme consists of two minors and a dissertation and is offered in cooperation with the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG). After completion of this pre-master programme and the bachelor's degree, students may directly enrol in the Cultural Geography Master programme offered by the RUG.
Research and practice
You will gain substantial practical experience in your chosen field throughout your studies. You do this for example by taking on practical assignments from companies, our various departments and our ETFI research institute or the Centre of Expertise for Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality (CELTH), of which this course forms part. You will also go on several international field trips during your course.
In order to share research data and knowledge within the education system and the professional field, a large team of researchers are affiliated with the course, along with three NHL Stenden departments. These departments include:
Recognised all over the world
In April 2017 The Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) awarded the NHL Stenden programme in Tourism Management the ‘Sustainable Development’ seal of approval. The organisation grants these seals of approval to educational programmes which have performed exceptionally in a specific area.
THE-ICE accreditation
The Tourism and Hospitality Management programme at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences successfully completed the accreditation process for the International Accreditation Standards of Excellence. NHL Stenden is a full member of the International Centre of Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education (THE-ICE) and is the first institution in the Netherlands and the second in Europe to receive this accreditation. This confirms that NHL Stenden is committed to excellent education in tourism and hospitality, as well as to internationalisation.
You will acquire substantial practical experience in your chosen field throughout your studies, for example through assignments completed for companies, our research groups and our European Tourism Future Institute (ETFI) research institute or Centre of Expertise Leisure (CELTH). You will also go on several international field trips during your course.
The Bachelor’s programme in Tourism Management has received the following accreditations and quality labels:
Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO)
The NVAO issued a unique “sustainable development” award in April 2017 to the Tourism Management Bachelor course at NHL Stenden.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a style of active learning in which you learn by solving problems. You will develop your practical abilities as well, which include verbal and written communication, conceptual thinking and English. Additionally, you will chair meetings, take minutes, learn to think critically and come up with solutions together with other students. All of this prepares you for entering the job market.
All NHL Stenden programmes are working towards a system of Design Based Education (DBE), which puts co-creation with professionals in the field front and centre. You will be working in small teams of students, teachers, researchers, and industry professionals. Tourism Management introduces DBE as from September 2020.