Tourism Management BSc (Hons) (with Foundation Year)
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UCAS Code: N833|Duration: 4 years|Full Time|Hope Park
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
Our Tourism Management degree is designed to get under the skin of the tourism industry by examining its various operational components. These include accommodation, transport and attraction sectors, in addition to examining the policy and planning frameworks that facilitate tourism development. It also demonstrates how underpinning theories can be applied by tourism organisations in real business settings. This is undertaken both through a taught and practical based approach, which includes industry visits and guest speakers, national and international fieldwork and practical case studies. You will be taught by experienced academics and industry professionals, who have proven expertise in the subject and have been trained to provide high quality support.
You will gain a truly interdisciplinary outlook on tourism management as the degree curriculum embeds knowledge from a variety of related subjects, including geography, business management and marketing, and events management. The degree seeks to actively engage with local stakeholders and some key elements of its curriculum focus on tourism development in the city of Liverpool and the wider region. The curriculum is research-driven and business practice-based; this provides you with up-to-date and first-hand tourism experience which can represent a key advantage in the highly competitive job market.
Liverpool is an ideal place to study tourism management as the city is home to a number of key tourist attractions in the UK, such as the Royal Albert Dock and waterfront, Tate Liverpool, Premier League football, National Museums Liverpool and the Beatles legacy. The city’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2008, has also contributed to continued growth of the city’s tourism sector. Therefore, due to the dynamic nature of the city’s tourism industry, there are constant opportunities to explore and investigate contemporary aspects of an international tourism destination on your doorstep.
A Placement Year option is available for this course. Undertaking a placement year as part of your degree programme offers you the opportunity to gain valuable work experience alongside your studies.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, seminars of smaller groups of around 20-25 students, and tutorials which typically have no more than 10 students. There are also a number of fieldtrips each year, as well as the opportunity to have a one-to-one meeting with your tutor each week.
In your first year there are approximately 12 teaching hours each week, which reduces to approximately 10 teaching hours in your second and third years. On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend a number of hours studying independently each week, as well as group study to prepare for any group assessments you may have.
Accreditation
All Tourism degrees, which includes the Tourism major as a combined honours option, are accredited by the Tourism Management Institute (TMI), the professional association for the destination management sector.
Professional Membership
Liverpool Hope University is a member of the Association for Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE), the subject association for tourism in higher education in the UK. Its objectives include promoting the development and recognition of tourism as a subject of study in the UK at foundation degree, undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels, and encouraging high standards in learning, teaching and research.
Assessment and feedback
Throughout your three years of study, you will have a number of assessments, including written exams at the end of each year, business reports, essays, a literature review, portfolios and presentations. In your final year, you will also complete a dissertation.
You will be given written feedback on your assessments, and you will have the opportunity to discuss this with your tutor in more detail.
Foundation Year
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
Year One
World Regions: Understanding the World
You will investigate selected world regions and explore themes and topics at a range of scales (global to local) including, for example, the environment (physical and human); globalisation and development; geopolitics; human processes (social, cultural, economic); and tourism dimensions.
Hazards, Risk and Society
You will investigate various dimensions of vulnerability and resilience in relation to the risks associated with natural hazards. These will be explored particularly from a social and cultural perspective and will consider aspects such as impacts on, for example, society; communities; culture; heritage; urban environments; tourism destinations; and tourists.
Exploring Geography and Tourism
You will investigate a range of themes and topics, for example, interpreting and representing the world/place/space; understanding natural and human processes (including tourism) and their interactions; sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (consideration of geographical and tourism contexts); and data analysis (including statistics and spatial data analysis).
Introduction to Business Organisations*
You are introduced to the underlying principles of Business Management, which includes for example, organisational behaviour; the customer; the business environment; competition; as well as Marketing.
Fieldwork (residential and/or non-residential)
* Taught by the Business School
Year Two
Niche and Alternative Forms of Tourism
An exploration of new and alternative forms of tourism, including heritage and cultural tourism; dark tourism; volunteer and backpacking tourism.
The Tourism Industry
An exploration of tourism industry dimensions, for example, globalisation, project and operations management, entrepreneurship, tourism marketing; as well as exploring tourism policy and planning.
Contemporary Human Geographies and Tourism
An exploration of, for example, contemporary social, economic, cultural and environmental contexts (eg socio-cultural awareness; urban/economic geography; urban regeneration; and tourism dimensions).
Environmental Policy, Planning and Management
An exploration of, for example, legislation; policy; planning; environmental impacts and management.
‘Experiential Learning Block’
An applied project based study block that can be undertaken as one of several formats eg fieldwork based (residential and/or non-residential); problem-based task; work placement related; or a block of work-based learning.
Research Methods
An exploration of a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, which considers data collection and data analysis.
Fieldwork (residential and/or non-residential)
Year Three
Destination Management
An exploration of global trends and advances in destination management, for example, strategic marketing, planning and management of destinations; organisational management principles and practices at international destinations and attractions; as well as, economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts on destinations.
Events Management
An exploration of the principles and practice of events management, which includes for example, critical evaluation of event management theories; planning, project managing and organising an event; and sponsorship and marketing of events explored through the use of case studies and industry guest speakers or visits.
International Fieldwork
You will undertake fieldwork internationally. Past countries have included Malta. Following a brief introduction to the international fieldwork destination, this will comprise the design and execution of individual project-based fieldwork involving data collection relating to a negotiated topic of relevance to the destination.
Honours Project (dissertation)
Entry requirements
There may be some flexibility for mature students offering non-tariff qualifications and students meeting particular widening participation criteria.
Careers
The expansion of the global tourism industry means there will continue to be a need for trained graduates in this field.
Graduates in Tourism are well suited to a wide variety of careers within the industry, including tourism marketing, arts/heritage/attractions management, tour operations, tourism product development, public sector tourism, urban regeneration, resort/destination management, transportation, or hotel and hospitality management. Many of our graduates have found employment in the tourism industry in Liverpool.
In addition, studying Tourism develops valuable transferable skills, which prepare students for many graduate jobs and for other careers in both the private and public sectors.
There are also increasing opportunities to study Tourism at postgraduate level and an increasing number of our students go on to train to be teachers of tourism and leisure.
Enhancement opportunities
Work Placement Opportunities
In your final year, your Honours Project can be completed through a work placement. This placement enables you to gain relevant work experience so that you can apply your tourism management knowledge and experiences into a work setting. Please note that you must organise this work placement yourself.
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
As well as your tuition fees, you need to consider the costs associated with compulsory and optional residential and other fieldwork trips. Cost depends on the nature of the fieldwork or location, but we estimate you will need around £400. You also need to budget for key textbooks (approximately £200).
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2025/26 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
With Foundation year, this degree is only available to study as a Single Honours course.