Should you pursue a hospitality and tourism management degree?

What is Hospitality and Tourism Management?

Hospitality and tourism management involves a wide distribution of careers in the food and beverage service industry, hotel and resort management, travel and tourism, planning and logistics, food marketing, and event management. The focus is on providing high quality service to a wide client base. Saunders College of Business provides an additional specialization on the technological aspects of these careers, from apps to manage check-ins and food delivery to data analytics.

A Variety of Career Options, Including:

• Hotel operations, resort management, restaurant management, and spa and wellness management
• Event management, everything from concerts and festivals to exhibitions and weddings
• Airline management, either stationary or travelling positions
• Casino management, experienced and educated property general managers earn a median salary of $222,252 according to salary.com
• Catering, including food service and event management
• Cruises, jobs around the world planning and organizing travels
• Consulting, for experts in the business to guide other organizations to success
• OR start your own business, RIT’s MBA program was ranked #5 in the United States for most graduate students that started their own businesses

The Perks

According to the U.S. Travel Association. “Americans whose first job was in travel went on to earn an average salary of $82,400 by the time they were 50 years old—higher than workers whose first jobs were in manufacturing, health care and most other industries.” More jobs are becoming available as well, with the travel and tourism industry growing 3.9% last year compared to the 3.2% global economy.¹

The opportunity for travel is a key feature of hospitality and tourism management careers. With a bachelor’s degree, there is also the potential to break into other realms of business and earn higher wages.

Why choose RIT?

Saunders College of Business at RIT is recognized as among the best in the nation, ranked #1 in Western New York, and #66 nationally for undergraduate business programs. Students are given a strong core curriculum with courses in innovation, entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, and more to provide a well-rounded knowledge base. Electives can be chosen from any of RIT’s nine colleges in order to tailor your degree to your career goals. RIT is home to one of the world’s first co-op programs, which allows students to do paid work and gain hands-on experience before graduation. Students can study abroad anywhere in the world, and at any of RIT’s Global Campuses.

¹“Economic Impact.” World Travel and Tourism Council, December 10, 2019.

https://www.wttc.org/economic-impact/.