Minor Tourism Impact Lab

The tourism industry is always on the move. If you have the ambition to work in the tourism industry, the minor offers you the opportunity to work closely together with a tourism organisation on developing impactful solutions. You will be challenged to translate trends and developments into innovative products or services, creating positive impact.  

You will work in a small group of students on a business case commissioned by a tourism organisation, ranging from a large multinational, such as TUI, to a start-up. Combining Design Thinking and the Lean start-up method, you will develop and test an impactful product or service for your commissioner.  

In the first weeks you will learn more about your commissioner’s business case and the opportunity in the market. In the following weeks you will find out which solution fits best for the potential customer. You will do ‘growth-hacking’ experiments to test your proposed product/service. In the final week you will present your findings to the commissioner and your fellow students, followed by suggestions on how to successfully introduce your proposed product or service to the market.  

More information:

Language of instruction

Blended: The course will be taught in English, but students have the option of submitting their assignments in Dutch.

Admission requirements

Admission requirements for BUas students:

• Propaedeutic certificate obtained

Admission requirements for external students:

• Students from Tourism, Leisure, Hotel Management programmes
• Propaedeutic certificate obtained

Learning outcomes & competencies

By the end of this minor, you will be able to:

• Apply a methodological approach, such as trend research, socio-cultural impact analysis, or market or competition analysis.
• Demonstrate your critical thinking skills and ability to consider problems from different perspectives.
  • Gain social and communication skills.
  • Learn to strike a balance between people, planet and profit (PPP).
  • Learn to organise, manage and improve business and organisational processes.
  • Learn to initiate, create and market products and services (both nationally and internationally).

Topics and structure of the minor

The overall goal of this minor is to learn how to develop professional solutions for people working in tourism. The following topics are covered: 

• Business model innovation
• Connecting to the industry
• Design Thinking and Lean Startup
• Industry assignment  
• Learning community
• Positive impact

This minor consists of three blocks, each comprising several masterclasses, and is worth 30 EC. As part of the wider Tourism Impact learning community, you will work in groups of three or four students on an impactful and innovative business case alongside representatives from the tourism industry and various lecturers. During the workshops, you will develop a proposal to present to the commissioner of your business case.

The minor is structured into three blocks:

• In block 1, you will familiarise yourself with the commissioner and the assignment. You will begin the first stage of the research by interviewing the target group to clarify the problem and identify opportunities.
• In block 2, you will take the next steps to define the problem and find a suitable solution.
• Block 3 involves conducting growth marketing experiments to determine whether there is a market fit.

Teaching & assessment

Approximately 10 contact hours are spent on campus each week. The rest of the week is spent conducting group research, attending in-company work sessions and coaching sessions, and working on personal development.

Masterclasses and workshops.

Assessment: 
Progress tests
Blocks 1 and 2 are followed by an assessment of the progress made. Feedback is provided in the form of a formative evaluation: your work is provided with feedback throughout the entire process.

Final test (30 EC)
At the end of the minor, you will hand in: 

• a professional product for the commissioner with your team
• an individual learning portfolio with various parts of the assignments and your individual process in the group project

Grading is from 0 to 10. 
A score of 5.5 or above counts as a pass.

Required study material

Previously acquired knowledge and skills form the base for this minor. Professional and academic sources will be used additionally: 

• Maurya, A. (2012). Running Lean, Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works.
• Hanington, B., Martin, B. (2012). Universal Methods of Design
• Tomitsch, M. (2017). Design. Think. Make. Break. Repeat., A handbook of methods.

Minor coordinator

Ben Veenstra: [email protected]