Hospitality and Tourism Programs

Hospitality & Tourism Programs

South-Seattle Community College

Travel and tourism is the world’s largest industry. International hospitality management involves working with so many people and cultural layers that it has the opportunity to help shape international relations—and change the world.

For you, this translates to a wonderful opportunity for a wide variety of exciting career selections. If hospitality and tourism is your chosen career, why study in the United States?

A Model for Global Industry

Students from around the world come to this international hub of business and hospitality, to learn and experience firsthand what customers want, need, and are going to demand in today’s global economy. With the quality of customer service increasing, the industry has become highly competitive, and you need that professional edge to get your foot in the door. In this country, hospitality training tends to emphasize creative thinking and leadership, to prepare managers rather than staff employees.

Culture

By studying and living in the U.S.A., you’ll increase your knowledge of not only American culture, but other international cultures as well. The U.S.A. is truly a melting pot; we come from many different backgrounds and this is reflected in our everyday living.

Enhanced English Language Skills

By actually living in the United States, you will be surrounded by English speakers. Classes at most schools are taught in English by native speakers. Your speaking skills, vocabulary, idiomatic usage, comprehension and listening skills will all be enhanced. What’s more, as English continues to be one of the major languages in global business, immersion in the language and culture is an added bonus that brings invaluable exposure.

Flexibility

It is not unusual for Americans to change their major or pursue more than one program simultaneously. Additionally, students often transfer from one educational institution to another.

Wide Choice of Programs

In the United States in the past 30 years, the number of post-secondary institutions offering hospitality, travel and tourism programs has more than quadrupled. This has resulted in a wide variety of philosophies and approaches. Guest service is the common thread woven through all hospitality and travel and tourism programs. While not all programs are available in all schools, generally these are the areas you may want to study: lodging, recreation, travel, tourism, convention, culinary, food and beverage, casino.

International students will find that U.S. programs offer instruction in a broad range of subjects, including the liberal arts, as well as specific skill areas such as Hotel and Restaurant Accounting, Resort Management or Ecotourism.

The University of California, Irvine offers a three-month Hospitality and Tourism certificate focusing on the growth of “greening” in tourism. Using case studies, instructors help students grasp concepts and practices of successful hotel management, with an emphasis on sustainability and conserving natural resources. Throughout the program the students examine real-life “cases” which involve tourism infrastructure, super structure (for example developing a new airport) and issues relating to pollution. The students determine how a tourism project will affect the local economy and the environment.

Students from overseas learn to apply (and present) to the rest of the class some of the tourism issues related to their home countries. The instructor tailors the assignment to each student’s country or city of origin.

Project management and customer service skills are important aspects of the program. For example, customer service class covers: delivering better, faster service; increasing customer satisfaction; learning how to gain repeat business; finding workable solutions to customer problems and motivating employees. The marketing and branding class covers such timely topics as electronic resources, international competitive analyses and metrics for evaluation.

The School of Hotel, Restaurant, Tourism and Dietetics Administration at the University of New Haven offers both Bachelor’s and an Associate program, with a focus on team building, problem-solving and critical thinking.

International students can also enter this field through community college programs such as the Hotel and Tourism program at Highline Community College in Seattle, which provides an education focused on front office, food and beverage, housekeeping operations and management in a hotel, and also features an in-depth internship.

South Seattle Community College provides a four-year transfer program that combines business and management skills with hospitality management through articulation transfer agreements with bachelor’s programs in the field. In a two-year culinary arts program, students operate several restaurants and a pastry shop.

Johnson & Wales University, with campuses in Denver, Miami, Providence and Charlotte, is the world’s largest Hospitality and Culinary Arts educator, with hands-on training facilities which include several hotels, restaurants, bakeries, a travel agency, horse-riding stables, and one of America’s oldest indoor malls, built in 1828. Popular programs of study are Travel-Tourism, International Hotel & Tourism Management, Sports / Entertainment / Event Management, Food Service Management and Food & Beverage Management.

Professors

Faculty come from a wide variety of backgrounds. While qualifications may differ, generally speaking, faculty members have at least a Master’s Degree and extensive experience in the industry. They are dedicated, hard-working and genuinely care for their students.

Employment Experience

Many hospitality programs offer intensive training, cover a variety of subjects and provide a special emphasis on customer service – something that many students find to be an invaluable part of their training. Credentials or a degree from an American program are respected all over the world and most important, many graduates experience great success and mobility in job placements.

Through internships/work experience programs, you have the opportunity to learn while working in your chosen field. Internships are an ideal way for you to gain hands-on experience with an emphasis on customer service. The best programs integrate academic site visits as well as trips to local attractions as a part of the curriculum, so that in addition to learning the business aspects of hospitality management you get to “walk in the shoes” of your future customers.

UCI (University of California, Irvine) assists you in securing a position right for you in world-class hotel resorts and spas, restaurants, airlines, travel bureaus and convention boards.

Hawai‘i Pacific University is located in a state where tourism is the leading industry. Its Travel Industry Management (TIM) program, at both undergraduate and MBA levels, offers work experience in organizations such as Outrigger, Sheraton, Hyatt International, Hilton hotels, and Disneyland.

TIM professors combine theory with practice in the classroom. For example, one of the requirements of the Passenger Transportation class is a comprehensive project. Based on what they’ve learned in class, students analyze a startup airline company. Then they assign and schedule the jets and explain the rationale of their recommended strategy.

Partnering companies offering on-the-job-training for Johnson & Wales students include Marriott International, Radisson Hotels, Walt Disney World, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Carlson Worldwide.

Lasting Friendships

Last, but certainly not least, is the opportunity you will have to make lifelong friendships. The other students you will meet, and friends you will make, will in many cases, be with you for life.

Thanks to the wide variety of excellent programs like these, hospitality graduates of U.S. schools are working in the hotel and restaurant industry in nearly every country of the world.

We are confident this will be the experience of a lifetime!

by Kelly Oto, Assistant Director of Professional Programs, English & Certificates for Internationals at the University of California, Irvine.

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