Hospitality & Tourism Programs in the USA
Hospitality & Tourism Programs in the USA
Updated: December 07, 2017
Find Hospitality and Tourism programs
Travel and tourism is the world’s largest industry. International hospitality management involves working with so many people and cultural layers that it has the power to help shape international relations—and change the world.
For you, this translates to a wonderful opportunity for a wide variety of exciting career selections. If hospitality and tourism is your chosen career, you should study in the United States. Here’s why...
A Model for Global Industry
Students from around the world come to this international hub of business and hospitality to learn and experience firsthand what customers want, need, and are going to demand in today’s global economy. With the quality of customer service increasing the industry has become highly competitive. You need that professional edge to get your foot in the door. In this country, hospitality training focuses on preparing students to become managers, rather than staff employees. Therefore, creative thinking and leadership is emphasized throughout the curriculum of a program.Culture
It may surprise you that by studying and living in the USA you’ll increase your knowledge not only of American culture, but other foreign cultures as well. The USA is truly a melting pot. We come from many different backgrounds and this is reflected in our everyday living. Experiencing a diverse set of cultures is especially advantageous for those in the hospitality field as clientele is not isolated to one country.Enhanced English Language Skills
By actually living in the United States you will be immersed with English speakers. Classes at most schools are taught in English by native speakers. Your speaking skills, vocabulary, idiomatic usage, comprehension and listening skills will all be enhanced. What’s more, since English continues to be one of the major languages in global business, immersion in the language and culture is an added bonus.Flexibility
It is not unusual for Americans to change their major or pursue more than one program simultaneously. Additionally, students often transfer from one educational institution to another. For example, as you progress in your studies at one school, learning more about the hospitality industry, you may discover a specific area of hospitality you want to pursue. This may motivate you to transfer to a different school that specializes in that area, or that is located near hotels and businesses offering internships that would be strategic to your career goals.Wide Choice of Programs
In the past 30 years, the number of U.S. post-secondary institutions offering hospitality, travel and tourism programs has more than quadrupled. This has resulted in a wide variety of philosophies and approaches. Guest service is the common thread woven through all hospitality and travel and tourism programs. While not all programs are available in all schools, generally there are certain areas you may want to study: lodging, recreation, travel, tourism, convention, culinary, food and beverage, casino.International students will find that the U.S. educational system offers instruction in a broad range of subjects. Most likely you will take classes that fall into the liberal arts category, as well as courses specific to your program, such as Hotel and Restaurant Accounting, Resort Management or Ecotourism.
The University of California, Irvine (UCI) offers a three-month International Tourism & Hotel Management Certificate focusing on the growth of environmental consciousness within tourism. Using case studies, instructors help students grasp concepts and practices of successful hotel management that emphasizes sustainability and conserving natural resources. Throughout the program the students examine real-life cases that involve tourism infrastructure, super structure (for example, developing a new airport) and issues relating to pollution. They then determine how a tourism project will affect the local economy and the environment.
Instructors tailor the assignment to each student’s country or city of origin, teaching students from overseas to learn to identify how some tourism issues relate to their home countries and the possible solutions they can apply. They then give a class presentation about their findings.
Project management and customer service skills are important aspects of the program. For example, the Customer Service class covers a variety of topics: delivering better, faster service; increasing customer satisfaction; learning how to gain repeat business; finding workable solutions to customer problems; and motivating employees.
The Marketing and Branding class covers such timely topics as electronic resources, international competitive analyses and metrics for evaluation.
Employment Experience
Many hospitality programs offer intensive training, cover a variety of subjects and provide a special emphasis on customer service—something that many students find to be an invaluable part of their training. Credentials or a degree from an American school are respected all over the world and most important, many graduates find great success and mobility in their career.Through internships/work experience programs, you gain invaluable practical experience in your chosen field. Internships are an ideal way for you to develop your customer service skills and learn to handle unique situations. The best programs integrate both academic site visits and trips to local attractions into the curriculum. Along with learning the business aspects of hospitality management, you will gain the perspective of your future customers.
Lasting Friendships
Last, but certainly not least, is the opportunity you will have to make lifelong friendships. The other students you will meet and the friends you will make, will in many cases, be in your life long after you complete your studies.Thanks to the diversity and variety of excellent programs like these, hospitality graduates from U.S. schools are working in the hotel and restaurant industry in nearly every country of the world.
We are confident this will be the experience of a lifetime!
Delaware County Community College
Just 30 minutes from Philadelphia, Delaware County Community College gives hospitality students the opportunity to intern, and later work, in a variety of renowned hotels, restaurants, casinos, country clubs and more.
Led by expert faculty who have worked in the field, the College’s two-year Hotel and Restaurant Management associate degree provides a strong foundation for students interested in an exciting, rewarding career in hospitality. Students are taught the supervisory skills needed to operate a hotel, bed and breakfast, inn and restaurant. They learn vital industry skills in human resource management, marketing and sales techniques. In addition, they become certified in food handling sanitation through ServSafe, an important U.S. food safety certification.
Students have opportunities to pursue internships to discover what the field is like and to gain hands-on experience. In the past, students have interned at a number of renowned organizations, including Walt Disney World, the Philadelphia Hotel Association, Wawa, Wegmans, Longwood Gardens and many Philadelphia-area hotels and restaurants.
After completing the program, students can begin their career or transfer to a four-year university to pursue a bachelor’s degree. A range of organizations have hired Delaware County Community College graduates, including Hilton Garden Inn, Hotel DuPont, Aramark, Springhaven Country Club and more. Many four-year colleges and universities in Philadelphia offer hotel and restaurant management programs and the College provides advising to help students with the transfer process. Students often transfer to Drexel University, Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management and Widener University.
Highline College
In addition to the eight areas of specialization there are hundreds of courses from which students can choose. Each student has the ability to build their own program in collaboration with one of the nine Hospitality and Tourism faculty members and with guidance from industry professionals. This program offers a bachelor’s degree on campus in conjunction with Central Washington University and multiple associate’s degrees, one-year certificates, and short-term specialist certificates.
Bachelor’s degree students can have three and a half years of Optical Practical Training (OPT) and up to a total of four years of paid work experience in the USA. Secondly, many courses are available on-site in thriving business environments. For example, Food and Beverage courses are currently available inside a Starbucks learning center and for aviation courses there is a permanent classroom inside SeaTac Airport. Third, this school offers a HOST I-BEST program in which students can learn English and earn credits toward graduation simultaneously.
Upon completion of a certificate or degree from HOST at Highline College, students will be prepared for the next step in their hospitality and tourism career. For some students, this means moving on to four-year schools such as the University of Houston, University Nevada Las Vegas, or Cesar-Ritz in Switzerland. For other students, this means entering the workforce.
Kirkwood Community College
Kirkwood Community College’s Hotel Management program is delivered within the onsite seventy-one room full service hotel property, The Hotel at Kirkwood. The hotel is a AAA Four Diamond rated property designed to provide students with hotel operations experience and extensive real-time training.The Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degree program uniquely affords students with opportunities to receive instruction and career development from the experienced faculty within the Hospitality Arts department and also from the senior leadership team of The Hotel at Kirkwood: General Manager, Director of Sales, Director of Food and Beverage, Front Office Manager, Executive Housekeeper and other leaders. Students are taught how to run a successfully functioning hotel property.
“Not a lot of schools put you face-to-face with real life guests and real life situations so I think that this program really sets itself apart from other programs,” explains hospitality alumnus, Jared Alberts.
Graduates of the Hotel Management program are positioned to either enter the job market at the supervisory level as Assistant Front Office Managers, Sales Coordinators, Banquet Captains, Housekeeping Supervisors, or Restaurant Supervisors, or to further their education by transferring Kirkwood credits to a number of local, regional, or national accredited universities in the pursuit of baccalaureate degrees in Hospitality Management.
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