Luxury Service Excellence requires students to take one or more study trips as part of their experiential learning at RIT; this is a hands-on learning course that provides real-life examples of theoretic constructs. As hospitality luxury is highly experiential, taking students out of the classroom will allow them to more fully gasp it. Students will be exposed to one or more global luxury destinations, allowing them to experience and appreciate the complexity and demands of superior service delivery. Various luxury destinations such as Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), would be excellent points of exploration. Students will be required to dive into the socio-cultural complexities of attaining luxury travel excellence, both from the point of view of product content and the necessities of product delivery processes. We will be exploring the cultural heritage as the backdrop for authenticity, but also global supply chains as the necessary elements for attaining it. We will explore how successful organizations build their products in terms of fashion/design, artisanship, food & beverage operations and how destinations preposition themselves to answer correctly to the challenges brought about by volatile and fast-changing global trends. Note that if travel abroad is restricted for any reason, course objectives will be achieved by visiting domestic and or local luxury operations. Additionally, guest lectures and Q&A sessions delivered by hospitality luxury professionals will provide students with exposure to the evolving luxury dynamic.

This course, the second in the First-year Business 4 Credit Experience, applies business and technology tools to create a modified business plan. Supported by guest speakers on a variety of professional development topics, along with student and professional mentors, students in this project-centered course use the Business Model Canvas innovation tool and learn to identify and communicate the nine key elements of a business model. Students will complete a team project that outlines the business case for a new product or service to address a selected challenge or opportunity. Student teams present a business case in both a one-page document and a 10-minute presentation pitch.