Northwestern Oklahoma State University

Master of Arts in Heritage Tourism & Conservation

In August 2020, NWOSU will begin offering a Master of Arts degree in Heritage Tourism and Conservation. This 32-hour program is designed to increase the knowledge base for students who are already employed in a conservation/tourism-based position and for students who want to work or establish a business within the conservation/tourism industry. The curriculum includes multidisciplinary coursework in the areas of history, sociology, communication, and conservation that culminates in an individualized project in an area of interest to each student. The aim is to prepare students to serve as leaders in existing and emerging areas of conservation/tourism and to make them more valuable and marketable to current and potential employers.

According to the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation, tourism is the third-largest industry in the state, and tax collections have increased by over 20% since 2010. Spending on tourism has grown by 28% during that same time period. According to a recent article in the Tulsa World, the Oklahoma Department of Tourism reports that the tourism industry added almost nine billion dollars to the state's economy over the past calendar year alone. In Northwest Oklahoma alone, there are four (4) state parks: Little Sahara, Alabaster Caverns, Great Salt Plains, and Boiling Springs. There is also one National Wildlife Refuge at Great Salt Plains, and there are many conservation areas in Woods, Harper, Dewey, Ellis, and Woodward Counties. Agri-Tourism is a subset of a larger industry called rural tourism that includes resorts, off-site farmers' markets, non-profit agricultural tours, and other leisure and hospitality businesses that attract visitors to the countryside. Heritage Tourism is also a subset of the larger tourism industry. Heritage Tourism focuses on the history and culture of a given region and can include genealogy, traditional arts, story-telling, music, dance, customs, food, activities of daily life, and incorporate museums (historical, archaeological, natural history, geologic) as part of the attraction (Travel Industry Association, 2003).