Why choose BUas?
- You will change the world of tourism and create positive impact.
- With us, you will look for genuinely sustainable solutions.
- You will study on an international campus, with people from all over the world.
- Our institute has almost 60 years of experience in tourism, so we know what we are talking about!
The right choice?
Do you want to know if Tourism Management is the right study choice for you?
Within five minutes you will find out if this hbo programme is the right fit for you!
Study overview
Year 1
Year 1 is made up of two semesters, spread over four nine-week blocks. Each block, you will work on a new project that introduces you to the dynamic field of tourism.
- Block 1: Travel Experience Design
In this block, you will learn how to turn travellers' expectations into unforgettable travel experiences. This begins online, where we trigger feelings of 'wanderlust' in holidaymakers looking for travel experiences. 'Wanderlust' stands for the desire to step out of one’s own world for a while and experience something different. It is the urge to travel. If you can turn that into a fantastic product that travellers will want to book, then you are exactly what the tourism industry is after.
An assignment within this theme may be creating a new, meaningful travel concept for a small travel business or a big one like TUI.- Block 2: Destination Development
In this block, you take the step from visiting a destination to understanding a destination. In other words, during this project, you will do research at the destination itself, which we call fieldwork. You will discover the story behind the destination. And you will present your results in the form of a short film or documentary during the 'Untold Stories' film festival.
- Block 3: Travel Mobility
In this block, you will tackle the challenge of how we can travel - discovering the world and ourselves - while protecting the environment. You will explore the current landscape of tourism and travel and brainstorm ways to shake things up. Who and what do you need to consider? What trends and opportunities have the potential to reshape the way we travel – not only at the destination itself, but also the journey to get there? How do we make travel greener without losing the fun factor for everyone?
- Block 4: Tourism Hospitality
You will look for new forms of hospitality in the context of tourism and leisure. We are all familiar with the idea of hospitality, but what exactly is it? What do tourists expect in this area today? Boundaries are blurring, with trends like ‘workation’, blending business and leisure. You will learn to experience the essence of hospitality in order to then use what you’ve learned to create ‘the holiday homes, safari tents or glamping lodges of tomorrow’.
Year 2, 3 and 4
In the first semester of year 2, you will work on two tourism projects. After that, you will have the opportunity to determine your own study route by choosing a challenge, an exchange or a placement.
A challenge is a form of education in which students, together with lecturers and professionals from the field, work on issues from the world around us. These are mostly real-world issues in society for which they develop solutions, aiming to improve the travel industry.
Overview of options:
- Year 2: In semester 3: two tourism projects and in semester 4: challenge, exchange or placement.
- Year 3: In semester 5: challenge, exchange, placement or minor and in semester 6: challenge, exchange, placement or minor.
- Year 4: In semester 7: challenge, exchange, placement, minor or graduation project and in semester 8: challenge, exchange, placement, minor or graduation project.
The ground rules are as follows:
- You do a placement of at least one semester.
- You may do one international exchange of one semester.
- You may do one minor of one semester.
- Placement
You will go on a placement of a minimum of twenty weeks. During your placement, you will gain practical experience, discover what suits you best and prepare yourself for a job in the tourism and recreation field. The programme has an extensive national and international network, offering a wide choice of placements, both at home and abroad. You can make use of this network or look for a suitable placement yourself. The student affairs team will support you in your search for a placement.
Do you think 20 weeks is not enough in terms of a placement? You can also choose to do several placements during your studies.
Here are a few placement examples:- Communication at Landal GreenParks
- Sun holidays at TUI
- Sustainability at Transavia
- Marketing & social media influencer at NBTC Holland Marketing
- EF International Language School in Madrid
- Marketing at Corinthia Hotels Malta
- Sales at Happy Gringo Travel in Ecuador
Read Rianne’s story to find out how everything she learned in her studies fell into place during her placement. And check out a day in the life of Jaleesa’s placement at EF International Language School in Sydney.
- Exchange
In the second, third or fourth year of your studies, you can take a semester of Tourism Management at one of our partner universities abroad. We have a total of some 100 partner universities, all over the world. To take part in an exchange programme, you will need to meet several conditions. If you are considering an exchange within Europe, you may qualify for a financial allowance through the Erasmus+ scholarship programme. A few of our partner universities:
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University in China
- Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences in Finland
- Università degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata' in Italy
- Northern Arizona University in the United States
- Hanyang University in South Korea
- Munich University of Applied Sciences in Germany
- Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain
- Minors
In the third or fourth year, you may do a minor of one semester. During this period, you can choose whether you want to explore your current field in more depth or broaden your horizons in another subject.
You may choose to take a minor at BUas. View all minors offered by BUas here. You can also opt for a minor at another university of applied sciences in the Netherlands.- Foreign languages
Would you like to spend a block or semester studying a foreign language such as French, German or Spanish? If so, the Languages & Culture minor is right up your street. This minor will immerse you in the country’s culture. You will enter at your own level and learn what you need to be effective and successful in this language.
- Pre-master's
BUas offers its own pre-master's programme Strategic Business Management and Marketing (SBM). If your academic results are good, you will be offered the opportunity of attending this pre-master’s programme in your fourth year. Successful completion of this track will give you direct access, after Breda University of Applied Sciences, to various Master of Science programmes in business-related studies in management and marketing at several partner universities. A few examples are the universities of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In this way, it will be possible for you to earn an academic master's degree within five years' time or, after having completed an accelerated three-year track, even within four years' time.
After your fourth year, you can also opt for a pre-master’s programme of a Dutch research university to gain direct access to their master’s programmes.
Specialisations
From semester 4 in year 2, you can specialise further in the themes you were introduced to in year 1. You choose the theme you want to specialise in by working out challenges. This may be a challenge that lasts one block, but you can also choose to specialise in one theme for the rest of your studies. There are four main specialisation themes:
- Travel Mobility. Exploring and developing responsible ways of travelling. An example of a challenge is the question: How can you motivate the adventurous traveller to travel by train instead of by plane? What solutions can you come up with - for example, for Eurail - to make rail travel within Europe easier?
- Tourism Hospitality. Exploring and combining new forms of hospitality in tourism. How can you lift hospitality to a higher level and blend it seamlessly into products like cruises, holiday resorts and day trip destinations?
Within this theme, you can also opt for Attractions & Theme Parks Management, an English-taught track together with International Facility Management and Leisure & Events Management. You have the option to participate in this track for either one semester or commit to a two-year programme and graduate in it. - Destination Development. Designing attractive tourism destinations for both visitors and residents.
In this theme, you will ‘Rethink Tourism’ during fieldwork. Your task will be to create sustainable solutions for local tourism businesses that have a positive impact on the destination. - Travel Experience Design. Transforming travellers’ expectations into unforgettable experiences.
Using ‘Design Thinking’, you will solve complex problems for various travel companies, learn to create experience prototypes and do experiments and tests with these. Our Newways training company also falls under this theme. You can opt for a 20-week placement here from year 3. You can also opt for a 40-week placement in your graduation year. At our training company, you will organise a wide variety of trips and events, both business and leisure events.
Study method
During the Tourism Management professional bachelor’s programme, you will work on projects in a ‘learning community’. In small groups together with other students, lecturers and industry professionals, you will work on real-world assignments for companies. With proper support, of course! Not only from a team of lecturers, but also from your fellow students as you are working on the projects.
In a learning community you learn by doing, exploring and discovering, and by reflecting together. In this way, you will develop skills that you can put to good use later on in your professional career.
You will also learn how things work in practice through company visits and fieldwork.
Study load
The average study load for this programme amounts to 40 hours per week per year. The number of hours students actually spend on their studies differs from person to person and from week to week. You will have two to three full days of classes on campus. These are fixed days that remain the same throughout the year. On the other days, you will work on projects either on campus or at home.
Personal development
With the Lumina Spark method you will discover who you are and what you have to offer. You will gain insight into your personal preferences, your behaviour and how you react in different situations. You will learn to look at yourself and others from different perspectives.
Self-insight is the basis for many personal and professional skills that you can continue to use in your future personal and professional life, such as reflecting, cooperating effectively, giving feedback and dealing with stressful situations. Understanding yourself and others better is key to achieving success.
Three-year and tailor-made tracks
The regular study programme takes four years. If you have the right previous education, you can also take the three-year programme/track.
- With a vwo diploma, certain international diplomas, hbo or wo propaedeutic diploma
When you have a vwo diploma and meet the previous education requirements, you can do the Tourism Management programme in three years (fast-track). This is also possible with certain international diplomas, a propaedeutic diploma of an economic professional (hbo) or academic (wo) programme. If you would like to have more information, check out the admission requirements or send an email to ATapplication@buas.nl.
If you take the fast-track programme, you will start in year 1 and from the second semester in year 2 onwards, you will skip two semesters. Since you can decide on the structure of your study programme, you will have the freedom to structure the other three semesters according to your wishes. You will do a work placement of at least 20 weeks (one semester) in the accelerated programme, too.
With this background, you will also be eligible for our three-year academic programme Bachelor of Science Tourism.
- With a havo diploma
Only for Dutch students: The tailor-made track for havo graduates: firstly, you do a Dutch-language programme at De Rooi Pannen (mbo level) and then you will enter year 2 of the regular (four-year) programme at BUas.
With a havo diploma, you can also choose to do an mhbo track. If you are thinking of continuing your education in tourism, media or the events industry, consider this option: Mhbo Tourism | Leisure | Creative Business.
You will take this level 4 accelerated programme at De Rooi Pannen in Tilburg or Breda. After two years, you will obtain your mbo diploma and have a choice of three professional programmes at BUas. Here you enter in the second year:- professional bachelor’s programme Creative Business
- professional bachelor’s programme Leisure & Events Management
- professional bachelor’s programme Tourism Management
So you will have a little more time to discover your talent: only after two years will you choose your professional bachelor's programme.
Field trips and excursions
On-site learning and internationalisation are important - if not indispensable - components of your Tourism Management programme and super valuable in terms of your own personal development.
Fieldwork means working in professional practice; not only ‘seeing’ destinations and organisations from your classroom chair, but actually experiencing them on location, while demonstrating the competencies you have learned at the same time.
With the help of BUas and local players in the tourism and recreation industry, you will get to know a destination from different perspectives. After all, you are not only a visitor and tourist, but also a professional-to-be. You will get to know a culture you may be not so familiar with. You will face dilemmas that you and your group will have to overcome. This will make you stronger in many respects.
In year 1, you will travel in the Netherlands or Europe (e.g., Bruges, Berlin or Malaga), but also visit, for example, the Holiday Fair (Vakantiebeurs) in Utrecht or an international fair in London. In year 2, you have the option to travel further, for example to Bali or Turkey.
Entrepreneurship
At BUas you are trained to become an entrepreneurial professional. In all the professional bachelor’s programmes, you are given the opportunity to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Alongside your studies, you can join BUas Startup Support, BUSS. BUSS organises (networking) events and connects student startup entrepreneurs, there is even the possibility to apply for guidance from your own startup coach.
You can also graduate within BUas with your own company! Every academy offers this opportunity, though a selection process may apply. Maybe, by that time, you already have a small profitable business or have plans to start one? BUas Startup Support can help you.
More information on how to start your own business.
Eye-catchers
E-lab
Experiment with your digital skills! First-year students develop a mock-up for a tourism app, create a 360˚ film, an infographic and an animation video.
Discover Your World
You don’t learn this profession in the lecture hall alone. So, you will get out and step into the practical world abroad to get to know other cultures.
Tourism Impact Lab
Together with researchers and professionals from the industry, BUas students develop their Storytelling & Experiences talent.
Admission
To be admitted to this degree programme, you need a havo or vwo diploma with an appropriate profile, or an equivalent of these Dutch diplomas. You can also be admitted with a level-4 mbo diploma.
- Check out the complete admission requirements and the possibilities if you do not meet the requirements
- Additional requirements have been set for the 3-year track.
Application
If you meet the admission requirements, you are invited to apply for this programme. Please check out the application procedure
Study costs
In the academic year 2024-2025 the statutory tuition fee for bachelor's programmes is €2,530. In addition to the tuition fee, you will need to take into account additional costs for participation in the introduction week and the purchase of study materials such as textbooks and excursions. Read more about study costs.
As a young professional you want to grow
I love the international vibe
It’s a cool job, which I owe to my work placement
I really enjoy doing group projects, especially with international students
I chose this study programme because I feel happiest when I am travelling. Why is that? This is something you learn, for example, in a course like Consumer Behaviour.
My tips for students who still have to make a choice:
- Join-a-student for a day
- Follow Your Road To BUas
Susanna
Student Tourism Management
Virtual campus tour
Have a virtual look and discover the Horizon building where you’ll be studying and what more the campus has to offer.
Around the globe
Experience a work placement somewhere around the globe at, for instance, one of our top 5 partner companies: Breda Marketing, NBTC, Efteling, TUI and Transavia.
Get inspired!
Read student stories about study trips, work placements and projects at inspiring organisations in the tourism industry.
Your career
Tourism is a ‘people’s business’. It’s all about people, hospitality and experiences. But also about business skills, creativity and organisational talent. You can pursue a career as advisor, manager, marketer or purchaser in the tourism industry.
Want to know more? After your degree.