About the course

It is a time of change in the travel and tourism industry. This innovative course – which also incorporates aviation – provides a wide-ranging understanding of the challenging global issues affecting travel and tourism. It also gives you the business and management skills you need to fly in your career, whichever sector you go into.

With its interdisciplinary approach, this course offers a critical understanding of the global issues affecting how international tourism and aviation are organised and managed. It explores the industry’s 21st-century challenges of rapid growth, the emergence of new destinations, climate change, and the ethics of managing a business in which the prime attractions include the natural environment and people’s culture.

This course combines theoretical and practical knowledge of tourism and aviation management, with topics including different aspects of management; marketing; heritage, cultural, social, environmental and political issues; and sustainable development. It also builds your understanding of the nature, structure and organisation of the aviation and airport industry.

The University of Bedfordshire is a member of The Association for Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE). ATHE is the subject association for tourism in higher education in the UK. It represents universities that are leading providers of tourism programmes.

Why choose this course?

• Develop management skills in travel, aviation and tourism, opening up a range of career paths
• Undertake a range of integrated, project-based activities which set the tourism and aviation industry in the context of business
• Learn contemporary tourism and aviation, ensuring you graduate with up-to-the-minute industry knowledge and news
• Investigate the sensitive and positive interactions between cultures and tourism, and explore the sustainable aspects of international tourism in your final year
• Put theory into practice through workshops, fieldwork, practice weeks, external visits and invited guest speakers from the tourism and aviation industry
• Take the course over four years and include a fee-free year in industry (see below), building your experience and making contacts for the future
• If you need to step up into higher education, start with a Foundation Year (see below) which guarantees your place on the degree course