Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU)

BA (Hons) in Tourism Management

Program outline

This program is specifically designed to provide students with:

• The knowledge and skills required for you to play a leading role in travel and tourism-related service industries.
• A critical awareness of travel and tourism’s roles in business, the environment, and sustainability.
• Advanced study of travel and tourism and facilitates progression, both academic and vocational, by means of developing your intellectual capabilities, knowledge, key personal and transferable skills, and a capacity for independent and lifelong learning.
• Skills that will enable you to work across diverse sectors of the tourism industry.
• Modules to develop cultural skills, negotiation, and communication skills, combined with the ability to develop and market a product; namely tourism.

Degree level 1

Students will learn fundamental skills required by every tourism management professional, and the basic understanding of the context within which businesses operate - Management, Law, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, People Management, and Accounting, with a specific focus on issues involved in managing services. We will also expose them to business & communication skills, computing & IT skills and quantitative skills, independent learning.

Common modules

• Accounting Skills
• Business and Communications Skills
• Digital Thinking and Innovation
• Introduction to Management
• Marketing
• People Management
• Quantitative Skills

Specialized modules

• Introduction to Travel and Tourism Environment
• Introduction to Services Management
• Legal Aspects in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

Degree level 2

A broader range of skills will be learned, in which students will gain a better understanding of business management, such as International Culture & Communications, Retail Travel Operation, Consumer Behaviour. In addition, they will explore topics and techniques in various sectoral applications within tourism management. We will further nurture their independent learning to prepare them for the workplace and for further researches.

Common modules

• Creativity and Innovation
• Critical Thinking In Management
• Consumer Behaviour
• Business Research Methods

Specialized modules

• E-Tourism
• Geography of Travel and Tourism
• International Culture and Communication
• Recreational Tourism
• Retail Travel Operations
• Sports Tourism
• Ticketing and Computer Reservation System
• Urban, Rural, and Coastal Tourism

Internship (16 weeks)

Students will undertake an Internship/Industrial Training for a minimum period of 16 weeks to prepare them for a smooth transition from the classroom to the working environment.

Degree level 3

Students will make use of their previous studies and industrial experience to extend their familiarity in tackling more practical and modern issues of tourism management, in the areas of strategic and marketing aspects together with environmental issues, with aims to groom them as a tourism industry leader. A final year project requires them to explore a topic individually – they will demonstrate the academic and practical aspects of their ability in the chosen area of study.

Common modules

• Crisis Management and Communication

Specialized modules

• International Tourism Marketing
• Investigations in Tourism Management
• Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions
• Monitoring and Evaluation of Service Management
• Tourism in Action
• Managing People and Performance
• Tourism Logistics
• Tourism Management Project
• Tourism Policy, Planning, and Development
• Tourism Sustainability

MQA compulsory subjects*

• Ethnic Relations (M’sian Students)
• Islamic & Asian Civilisation (M’sian Students)
• Malaysian Studies (Int’l Students)
• Malay Communication Language (Int’l Students)
• Workplace Professional Communication Skills
• Employee & Employment Trends
• Co-Curriculum

(*All students are required to successfully complete these modules as stipulated by the Malaysian Qualification Agency.)

Career options

• Tourism Consultant
• Tourism Business Development Manager
• Event Manager
• Tourism Project Coordinator
• Tourism Retail Manager
• Corporate Travel Manager
• Group Sales Manager
• Hotel Manager
• Hospitality Manager
• Resort Manager
• Front-line Customer Services
• Passenger Handling
• MICE Specialist