Course aims to build solid foundation for students
The bachelor of arts in travel industry management, by the school of professional education and executive development (Speed), has been developed to meet the needs of professionals in the hotel and travel industry.
The 10 compulsory subjects would help students build a solid understanding of key areas - finance, marketing and human resources - in the industry, said Zhang Hanqin Qiu, the head of cluster (hotel and tourism management) at PolyU's College of Professional and Continuing Education.
'More importantly, these subjects also teach the students the skills to apply these principles to the hotel and travel industry,' Dr Zhang said.
'Their study will move into the specialisation of these disciplines tailored to meet the needs of the hotel and travel sector.'
The compulsory subjects include financial management for non-finance specialists, information technology (IT), quality service management and legal aspects in the travel and tourism industry.
Information technology for the travel and tourism industry, for example, will equip students with the knowledge and skills on IT concepts and communication systems.
They will also learn about the IT applications in sectors such as airlines, travel agencies and gaming.
The programme features legal aspects as a compulsory subject because the operation of the hotel and travel industry involves a lot of contracts. 'On top of that, ethical issues related to the sector will be built into the subject,' Dr Zhang said.
After the students get a deeper understanding of the operations of the hotel and travel industry through the compulsory subjects, they would be able to take electives, which were designed to enrich their specialised knowledge of related fields such as the tourism, cruised, event management and meetings, incentives, conventions and events sectors, Dr Zhang said.
The electives include tour operations and wholesaling, cruise line management, special event management and event sales and marketing management.
Speed will have full-time faculty lecturers from the finance, human resources and other specialised disciplines to teach the theories and concepts. Then, Dr Zhang said, the specialised applications of the principles to the hotel and travel industry would be jointly taught by industry practitioners and the professors specialised in their fields. 'Our professors will complement the teaching by sharing their latest research findings so that the students will get a comprehensive, updated package of theories in addition to practical applications.
'As the hotel and tourism industry is international in nature, we will invite visiting professors from the United States, Britain and Australia, to teach some of the subjects in blocks for up to two weeks [at a time],' she said. 'These visiting professors may take up teaching of contemporary issues, finance management and quality service, so that students will get exposure to the different standards of service in different countries. The visiting professors can guide them to look at the issues from various cultural perspectives.'
The programme also has a strong emphasis on tourism development on the mainland, particularly in the Pearl River Delta. 'We will build field visits and case studies of corporations located in the region into several of our subjects, like venue management and tourism study,' Dr Zhang said.
