Master in Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality Management

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

With its unique and exclusive format, CBS’ new 1-Year Master of Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) offers a programme that fully engages with digital and sustainable transformations. STHM has been developed in dialogue with representatives from Danish travel trade, hospitality and tourism organisations, and its educational design focuses on addressing present managerial concerns with solid methodological approaches and research-driven solutions. You will acquire skills and competences to solve complex and ambiguous, interdisciplinary issues with regards to sustainable tourism development. You will be able to spot societal challenges and have the entrepreneurial knowledge to help solving them. In doing so, you will develop a deep sector-specific business knowledge placed in a broader societal context. Upon completing the programme, you will be able to communicate scientifically grounded, strategic solutions based on the latest techniques and methods in data analysis – creating value from global connections for local communities.

Sustainability is thereby a foundational feature that runs through the entire programme. You will learn about different traditions and approaches to sustainable management, embracing ecological, ethical and social considerations. You will understand ethical dilemmas and have the leadership values to overcome them. The overarching theme of sustainability informs all four key areas of the programme: consumer studies, business development, digitalization and data analysis.

Consumer studies

Demand for tourism is constantly diversifying and is affected by other consumer markets; such are lifestyle, popular culture, leisure as well as global mobility flows. The recent unsustainable growth in city and coastal tourism as well as the complete halt of international travel in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic requires more innovative and effective methods to map, predict and manage visitor flows. The first pillar of the programme aims at giving you an advanced insight into psychological and behavioural frameworks of tourism consumption that will cover both individual and collective perspectives.

Business development

Currently, the international tourism industry is undergoing rapid and profound transformations in the wake of challenges, such as digitalisation, health risk, and climate concerns, as well as emergent global markets and competitors. Tourism affects host societies in multiple ways; and simultaneously carries the seeds of prosperity and environmental degradation. Furthermore, the enduring crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic imposes practitioners to reinvent the tourism of tomorrow and capitalize on the opportunity of creating a more sustainable, resilient and innovative sector. This pillar presents sustainable business models frameworks, that will be scrutinized with regards to their ability to ensure balanced and equitable development for communities, businesses and the biosphere. Collaborative approaches, such as stakeholder management are discussed in the light of sustainable development goals and local governance. You will learn to be competitive in business and compassionate in society, producing prosperity and protect the prosperity of the next generations.

Digitalization

Despite the growth of digital forms of communication, big data mining, digital business models, and online transactions in several service sectors, many tourism businesses still lag behind in terms of digital innovations. The enduring challenge digital transitions is addressed in the third pillar of the programme. In particular, modules will focus on digital communication, as well as digital changes in business models and value chains. A data-driven analysis of value chains and business relationships may also identify new entrepreneurial opportunities. You will also acquire skills to management of digital transformations, ranging from radical digital disruptions to initiating incremental improvements with digital devices and virtual experience formats.

Data analysis

Strategic data competencies are strongly connected to the digital change (digitalization) that takes place in all parts of our lives, including tourism and hospitality. Hence, data analysis is a key skill set that is imperative for future entrepreneurs and employees working in tourism and hospitality industry. Future business and governmental decisions require data-based evidence from different sources and modalities of data. Data mining and new geo-locational tracking technologies provides more sensitive and accurate tools to understand, influence and manage consumer needs and behaviour. The fourth pillar of the programme will assist you to develop quantitative method skills that are essential to deal with the data-driven transformation of the tourist and hospitality businesses.

In connection with the development of the programme the news media at CBS, CBS WIRE, published an article about how graduates from the Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality Management programme can help the sector deal with some of the short and long terms challenges it is facing. You can read the article in CBS WIRE.

STRUCTURE

The Master of Master Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) is a one-year master’s programme that is divided into four quarters. There are five mandatory courses in the first semester, followed by another mandatory course, two elective specializations and a project thesis in the second.

For an optimal competence development regarding data-driven sustainable transformation of tourism companies, STHM is designed by a unique pedagogical approach that combines business, consumer and digital aspects in one education. There is a certain degree of progression between the courses in the first and second semester. Student’s analytical skills established during the data hackathon-project will be further developed in the Big Data module. Furthermore, each elective offers an opportunity to further specialize in one of the thematic pillars of the programme (consumption, digitalization, business development). The acquisition of specialist skills are enabled through diverse and innovative teaching activities (real-life company cases, fieldtrips, innovation projects, data hackathons and other group-oriented learning modules), and hence, you are strongly encouraged to follow all modules, incl. electives of the programme.

The education concludes with a tourism and hospitality project thesis, where you will be able to apply and combine analytical and theoretical perspectives of the previous modules to identify, analyse and solve a practitioner’s business problem in a real-life business case.

The specific pedagogic focus lies in enabling you to use research-based scientific knowledge and methods to real-life business and societal challenges. A close collaboration with the tourism and hospitality industry is thereby a basis for all courses – increasing your critical thinking and constructive ways of collaboration. Our program also highly relies on collaborative work tasks and group work. Thereby, you will grow by relearning, constant exchange, and by teaching others to do the same.

COURSE OVERVIEW

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