Best Tourism Degrees

“By some measures, tourism may already be the world’s largest industry, with annual revenue approaching $500 billion.” – peopleandplanet.net

A hospitality management degree online program provides students the business skills and cultural education necessary to run travel agencies, organize cultural attractions, operate a food service business, plan meetings as well as large conventions and events, facilitate operations at hotels, theme parks, casinos and resorts, promote tourism, and arrange individual, group, or corporate trips and tours around the world.

A hospitality management online degree allows students to work in sectors such as food service operations, visitor bureaus and conventions, recreational business, tourism development agencies, hotels, resorts, theme parks, international travel and tourism agencies, airlines, and casinos. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a 8% employment growth for hotel meeting planners from 2022 to 2032, and a average salary of $52,560 a year.

Hospitality management online degree programs vary widely across the universities and colleges. Tourism and hospitality degree programs offer bachelor and master degrees in many different concentrations and specializations, such as tourism, hospitality, travel, recreation, and event/meeting management.

Programs in the field offer courses such as tourism and hospitality marketing, food service management, brand management, travel law, international travel, hospitality and tourism management, sustainability in hospitality and tourism, operational management, corporate finance, and economics of travel and tourism.

To earn a tourism degree students usually take required general business courses and decide on a program track in areas such as hospitality management, tourism management, or a related field. In most tourism degree programs students take all required courses as well as electives, complete an internship, and finalize their studies with a comprehensive capstone course which includes a practicum and/or research paper.

The schools are listed in alphabetical order. The list includes mainly bachelor degree programs and a few master degree programs.