Sustainable Tourism Management BA(Hons)

During the first year of your degree, you’ll explore sustainability challenges within the tourism industry, including tourists themselves, host communities and the environment. On top of this, you’ll develop key skills in marketing, teamwork, communication and negotiation. 

Modules

Marketing & Digital Media

Whether you’re marketing a major global event or a small community-based fundraising experience, you’ll need to understand your customer and communicate your value proposition accordingly.   

In this module, you’ll learn about experiential marketing and how to make an impact, explore marketing techniques such as the use of social media influencers, user-generated content and second screen advertising. 

Contemporary Tourism Impacts

Exploring both mainstream and niche sectors of the tourism industry, you’ll work in small teams to focus on a particular area of tourism that you’re interested in. You’ll delve into your specialist field of interest and identify the size, scope and trends within that area. You’ll also address impact and sustainability issues and identify best practices for sustainable tourism management. 

Wellbeing in Experience Management

Looking at how wellbeing is connected to experience management and wider aspects of customer satisfaction, you’ll explore ways to develop wellbeing as a customer offer while addressing its importance within an organisation. Crucially, you’ll explore the value of wellbeing for your own personal and professional development through a micro-placement opportunity.

Creative Innovation in Experience Management

You’ll explore a range of innovations including the use of virtual reality and artificial intelligence, Blockchain, naturescaping, social infrastructure projects, passive energy systems and the development of the sharing economy. You’ll also gain valuable skills such as communication, persuasion and negotiation that are essential in industry.

Live Sustainable Tour Guide Project

A high-quality tour can often be the most enjoyable and ‘real’ experience that a tourist can take part in. In this module, you’ll learn how to design captivating and engaging tours for a range of audiences and markets. 

You’ll work with a small team of colleagues to construct a tour based on a specific destination, interest and customer profile and then deliver that tour in a real-world setting.

Real World Skills

You’ll explore a range of ‘real world’ skills that relate to your own professional goals and have the opportunity to take part in several technical inductions that may include health and safety, for example. There will also be opportunities to take part in a work-based learning placement.  

You’ll reflect on what you have learnt and how you have developed through a series of blog entries.

You’ll build on your knowledge about sustainability and take part in a live challenge designed to provide innovative solutions to a tourism industry challenge. 

You’ll also explore legal and financial issues that relate to the industry, while developing your professional profile within the wider tourism sector by producing a sustainability-focused blog. 

Modules

Legal & Financial Management in the Experience Sector

You’ll learn how to accurately analyse a range of financial materials including industry-standard financial templates such as balance sheets, profit and loss statements and cash flows. 

You’ll also get to grips with legal and regulatory considerations such as data protection, equality and diversity, health and safety, consumer protection and workplace legislation.

Live Sustainability Challenge

In this module, you’ll develop an understanding of how to generate meaningful intelligence from audience data. In order to better understand audience motivations, expectations and experiences, you’ll learn to collect and interpret relevant data.  

You’ll also undertake a micro-placement to further your understanding of the real-world sustainability challenges that face experience sector organisations. 

Team Learning & Performance

In this module, you’ll take part in a micro-placement and complete a review of your own team working skills, assessing how you contribute to overall team performance.  

You’ll also reflect on the practices of others while devising a development plan to help enhance your professional growth.

Cornish Attraction Project

You’ll learn about key aspects of the operational and strategic management of a Cornish attraction. You’ll analyse the environment of the organisation to understand the challenges that it faces as well as the opportunities that are available. 

You’ll work in a small collaborative team to devise a development plan for that attraction that fits the organisation’s vision and enhances their current tourism offer. This is your opportunity to add real value to an existing organisation.

Demonstrating Sustainability

In this module, you’ll explore the theory and practice of ‘experience impact’. Investigating the huge benefits that experiences can bring, as well as the, sometimes, devastating effects of unsustainable practice, you’ll analyse a range of impacts and learn to develop a holistic view of experience activities.  

You’ll select a particular sustainability related issue that you’re passionate about and discuss this within a blog format. You’ll also utilise examples of best practice to inform and justify proposals designed to address the issue that you have identified.

You can choose to take an optional placement year after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year. 

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the RealWORKS employability team. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying. 

How you’ll study during your placement year 

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. 

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation. 

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

In your final year, you’ll develop an in-depth understanding of leadership and crisis management, as well as gain real-world experience from a micro-placement and international residential trip. 

Through the completion of a personal research project, you’ll explore an industry topic that relates to your intended career interests – allowing you to focus on what you’re passionate about

Modules

Crisis Management for Tourism

In this module, you’ll develop your management capability to deal with complex crisis situations before immersing yourself within a live crisis scenario to test your skills. You’ll be assessed on your ability to respond to and evaluate this crisis scenario within a realistic multidisciplinary team situation.

Tourism Innovation Project

In this module, you’ll complete a market audit of an area of the tourism industry that interests you and plan the introduction of an innovative, sustainable and inclusive product or service to launch into that market.

Through the completion of a business plan, you’ll communicate both your innovative concept and its key financial, marketing and operational information, and justify the value of your innovation – either as a commercial venture, using an ROI metric or with social, cultural or ecological benefits in mind.

Creative & Ethical Leadership

In this module, you’ll further develop your industry experience through the completion of a micro-placement. You’ll also continue to develop your understanding of creative and ethical leadership and build a portfolio to showcase the range of experiences and attributes that you have developed throughout the course.

Personal Research Project

In the form of an extended research project, you’ll address the important aspects of a topic of your choice, giving you the opportunity to contribute to the theoretical and applied landscape within your field of interest. 

You’ll also be supported by a research project supervisor, who’ll be there to guide you through the research process and act as a sounding board for your thoughts, ideas and approaches.

Live International Destination Project

In this module, you’ll explore the complexities, nuances and interconnectivities of international destination management. In order to research and appreciate the ‘sense of place’, you’ll complete a live project by visiting an international destination on an optional residential trip. You’ll then work in small collaborative teams to produce a destination management strategy that you’ll present to a range of interested parties.  

Travel, accommodation and organised activities during the optional international residential trip are funded by your course fees, however you’re expected to pay for food and free-time activities.