Bachelor of Business (Hospitality & Tourism Management)

The Bachelor of Business (Hospitality & Tourism Management) is a three-year Australian bachelor degree awarded by Kaplan Business School. It sits at Level 7 on the Australian Qualifications Framework, the same level as any other bachelor degree in the country. You study full time over three years, usually across trimesters, and graduate with a degree that carries the same weight as a business degree from any Australian university.

What you actually study

Like all Australian bachelor degrees, this one is built from units of study. Each unit is worth a set number of credit points, and you accumulate them across the degree until you meet the total required to graduate. The first year covers the business core: accounting, economics, marketing, management and business law. From there you move into the hospitality and tourism specialisation, studying areas such as food and beverage operations, accommodation management, tourism planning and policy, destination marketing, event management, and the economics of the visitor economy. You will also cover revenue management, service quality, and the legal and regulatory frameworks that apply to hotels, resorts, tour operators and travel businesses.

Structure and work-integrated learning

Australian bachelor degrees of this type typically include a capstone unit in the final year, where you bring together what you have learned and apply it to a real business problem or project. Many also build in work-integrated learning, which in hospitality and tourism usually means an industry placement or internship with a hotel, resort, tour operator, events company or tourism body. Kaplan Business School has industry connections across the sector, and placements give you supervised experience in a working operation before you graduate. Assessment is a mix of exams, reports, presentations, group projects and practical work, depending on the unit.

Skills you build

You finish with the ability to run a hospitality or tourism operation: rostering and managing staff, controlling costs, reading a profit and loss statement, designing a guest experience, marketing a destination, and handling the compliance side of running a venue or tour business. You also build the softer skills that matter in this industry, including customer service under pressure, cross-cultural communication, and problem-solving when things go wrong at 11pm on a Saturday.

Who this suits

This degree suits people who want to work in hotels, resorts, restaurants, airlines, cruise operators, event companies, tourism boards or travel businesses, and who want a business education rather than a purely vocational one. If you are already working in hospitality and want to move into management, it gives you the formal qualification to do that. International students should note the English requirement: IELTS Academic 6.0 to 6.5 overall is the common undergraduate standard, with TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and the school's own English programmes accepted as equivalents. The Department of Home Affairs sets a separate English threshold for the Student visa itself. While studying, a student visa allows 48 hours of work per fortnight. On completion, the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream lets eligible graduates stay and work in Australia. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 085961C. Confirm current entry requirements, unit lists and fees on the official page before you apply.

• Hotel and resort management, front office manager, duty manager, rooms division manager, food and beverage manager, revenue analyst. Employers include international hotel groups, boutique properties and serviced apartment operators across Australian cities and regional tourism areas.
• Tourism operations, tour operator, destination manager, inbound tourism coordinator, reservations and ticketing consultant. Work with tour companies, inbound operators and travel agencies.
• Events and conferences, event coordinator, conference and banqueting manager, weddings and functions manager. Employers include event management companies, convention centres, wineries and hospitality venues.
• Destination marketing and tourism bodies, marketing coordinator, visitor services manager, tourism development officer. State and regional tourism organisations, local councils and industry associations hire for these roles.
• Food and beverage, restaurant manager, bar manager, catering manager, venue operations supervisor.
• Aviation, cruise and transport, airline customer service and ground operations roles, cruise ship hospitality, and ground handling for tourism transport operators.
• Business and consulting, hospitality business analyst, operations consultant, and roles in the wider services sector where a business degree with industry knowledge is valued.