Program curriculum

This M.A. program provides knowledge and skills for top-level management in a global environment.
The second degree will provide knowledge and skills for top-level management in a global environment. The globalization era requires the appropriate training of top managers on a local level, and especially those who deal with management of international tourism and hotel systems, with a unique economic and business orientation. For this reason, most of the proposed courses open new directions. The program combines advanced research, planning, and management tools.

The Executive M.A. in Tourism and Hotel Management program at Kinneret Academic College is designed to focus on strategies of tourism and hotel management that are suitable for the competitive and uncertain environment of an era of globalization and transnationalism. The program is designed to provide students with the tools and skills to manage global systems in tourism and hotel management such as international hotel chains, airlines, international tour operators, global online travel agencies (OTA), or to act in the positions of decision makers in governmental or international organizations. That is why the program is taught in English. Consequently, Israeli and foreign students from all over the world can study together, an advantage that can significantly boost multicultural and global discourse and cooperation.

Credits, courses, project

The program comprises 3 key components:

1. Tourism Hospitality & Economy
2. Strategic Management & globalization
3. Elective courses

All of the courses are single-semester courses; frontal lectures (“lessons”) are two hours per week (2 credits), while a seminar course is four hours per week (4 credits). In addition, each student must submit a supervised project paper (during the final semester), which is  also 4 credits. The total of required credits is 40, of which 32 credits are compulsory courses and 8 credits are electives. The 32 compulsory courses’ credits are divided as follows: 22 credits for lessons, 4 credits for seminar, and 6 credits for the final project.

The program also includes several ‘completion’ courses (each two hours per week in one semester). These courses are designated for students with incomplete backgrounds from their B.A. degree. These courses do not grant credits. The requirement for completion courses is considered on an individual basis. Students must complete these courses before or during their first year in parallel to the M.A. courses.

Course details

Tourism and Globalization- Seminar:

The seminar will outline the relationships between tourism and globalization. It will explore the nature of globalization and identify some of the processes facilitating greater global interconnectedness. The subject will also address the relationship between tourism and globalization in each one of the following areas: economic, political, and social.

The Global Hospitality Industry:

The course will discuss the global influence of the economic, political, and environmental issues in the hospitality industry. It will concentrate on general principles, techniques, concepts, of hotel operations and management. Students will examine the mechanisms employed in the management and operation. The course will address the global trends in food and its influence on the hospitality industry. A closer look at the “real world” styles of international hotels management.

Global trends in alternative tourist accommodations:
Accommodations are a key component of tourism as all travellers need a place to stay. While hotels are the most popular and recognized sort of lodging in the modern era, there are many other kinds of accommodation that have emerged in recent decades to suit traveller’s different needs and desires. The current course focuses on the nature of global and local trends that advantage the prosperity of alternative accommodations. In this framework, the course addresses various theoretical concepts alongside global statistics and examples.

From Vision to Reality: Developing & implementing a hospitality business
This course will train you in the art of envisioning and building a successful model for a business. Will we review the different strategies, practice innovative thinking and how to monitor and learn from the results. The cource topics are: Vision and model – building the model for the chosen business; Market research + BI – understanding the business surroundings (business intelligence); From model planning to execution – planning the steps of constructing the business; Market mix and market share – identifying the relevant markets to the business in planning; Pricing – yield management; Branding – naming and positioning; The wind of change – innovation and adaptation; Tour in Tel Aviv’s chosen projects.

Managing International Religious Heritage Tourism
This course introduces students to the key concepts of heritage, including authenticity, nostalgia, political contestation, the heritagization of ordinary landscapes and places, and dark heritage. It describes the supply and demand elements of heritage tourism in the context of all types of cultural heritage. The course also specifically examines pilgrimage/religious tourism as an important part of heritage tourism. Understanding the religion and all of its material culture and intangible heritage (e.g. buildings, holy sites, beliefs, practices, pilgrimages, etc) are an important part of human heritage and a significant form of tourism in many parts of the world. The course will examine the impacts, outcomes, and management of religious tourism within the context of heritage tourism.

Innovation and Creativity in Tourism:

Innovation and creativity are crucial in the dynamics of the contemporary tourism ecosystem. As part of it, businesses in the tourism industry need innovation competencies to remain sustainably competitive in the future.  In order to explore and gain a broad knowledge of this valuable topic, the course is divided into two mains parts. In the introductory part, students learn about key concepts in the study of innovation management. Familiarity with these concepts provides students with a conceptual background for the second and main part of the course, which focuses on diverse forms of tourism innovations and creativity from different perspectives and methodologies.

Tourism Crises Management and Resilience:

In recent years, crises have become a familiar problem for a growing number of tourist destinations. In this turbulent era, having a crisis is not a question of “if” but a question of “when” and “how prepared will we be”. The course aims to provide essential knowledge on crises in the tourism industry, educate the participants on the various tasks and missions of pro-active crisis management, and guide the students in creating a crisis management manual.

Marketing Research and Consumer Behavior Analysis:

The course provides an overview on marketing research and consumer behavior analysis in tourism. The course’s focuses on three core issues: introduction to marketing research and its critical role in tourism development, management and marketing; key models and issues in analyzing the fundamental environments of the destination/ organization, the consumers and the competitors; and gaining an in-depth understating in the market research methods of survey, focus groups and netnographics. The course is aimed to enhance the understating of market research in tourism and hospitality, and provide practical tools for managing and analyzing research for organizations and destinations.

Digital Marketing Management of Tourism and Hospitality:

Marketing is a critical component for the tourism and hospitality industries, linking the tourism supply and demand systems. In recent years, the landscape of marketing has changed dramatically, resulting from new communication technologies and platforms. Such changes include the dominance of online search engines, social networks, and social media marketing, and the role of smartphones and mobile marketing. The course aims to provide essential knowledge on digital marketing in the digital society, educate the

participants on the various tasks and missions of contemporary marketing, and guide the students in creating a digital marketing strategy.

Strategic Management in Tourism and Hospitality Industry:

Understanding the fundamental concepts in strategic management in general and specifically in tourism and hospitality businesses. Analysis the business, competitor analysis, external and internal strategy and the relationship of between the organization and the competitors. The students should be able to develop and implement a strategic plan, considering social responsibility, environmental aspects and should be able to assess the economic and market added value of the implemented strategy.

Operations Research Applications in Tourism:

Operations Research (OR) is a science of modeling and optimization by using scientific approaches to decision-making. Through mathematical modeling, it seeks to design, improve and operate complex systems in the best possible way. The aim of the course is to provide basic insights of the optimization process as a supporting tool for managers in decision making. The course illustrates the principal techniques and their application in the different tourism sectors, including the hotel industry and aviation.

Data Analysis and Decision Making in Tourism and Hospitality:

Efficient decisions in the tourism industry are based on information inferred through valid and clean data. Sources of data can be derived from official statistical reports or visitor surveys (from national to site level).  This course is designed to provide students with the necessary tools for analyzing, interpreting and presenting data needed for tourism business decisions. A variety of statistical tools will be examined that can be used to assist managers in the decision making process. The course combines teaching and seminars in the computer lab with group work on statistical packages. By the end of the course students will be able to utilize data through appropriate statistical tools and spreadsheet software to achieve the most confident decision.

Final Project – Strategic Management in Tourism:

The final project is a summarizing paper – in scope bigger than a seminar paper but smaller than a thesis. The project paper is the student’s final graduation requirement. The objective is to analyze, research, and develop a tourism issue concerning one of the topics discussed in the program (Strategic Management in the Globalization Era). The student is required to formulate a research question or problem, which will serve as a basis for the paper, and will guide the direction of investigation or inquiry.

Revenue Management in Tourism and hospitality:

Revenue Management, also known as yield management, is an essential practice in different industries aimed to maximize particular firm revenue. Revenue management was initially developed by the airline industry, and has extended to its current state as a common business practice in a wide range of industries. Each industry also has specific characteristics that determine the practical aspects of revenue management. This goal of

this course is to identify and evaluate the revenue management principles, practices, and techniques applied by hotels. The course includes theoretical framework of hotel revenue management as a concept, analyses, and various other tools in the hoteliers’ arsenal.

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Elective courses:

Managing Tourism and Transportation in a Global Environment:

The course is focused on the relationship between transportation and tourism in the global context. On one hand, transportation development was one of the main accelerators of tourism development; while on the other hand, the evolving manifestation of the tourism industry and the substantial changes in tourism behaviour required increasingly more sophisticated transport technologies. Tourism has been the highest of all types of mobility over the past decades.

The course concentrates mostly on surface transport, as the accessibility to tourist destinations (from national level to individual site) is vital for having demand and creating an economic impact. Besides, focus is also given to other transport modes that have an influence on the international tourism long-haul travels, such as high-speed trains and the cruise industry. Aviation is mentioned briefly, as a specific elective course is dedicated to it.

Tourism Management in Global Cities

This course will cover the multifaceted aspects of urban tourism in global cities. The process and development of urban tourism and issues relating to urban destination management will be analyzed and discussed. Students will learn about the factors which influence the development of urban tourism in global cities and make the uniqueness of the destination. There is also emphasis on issues related to urban attractions, logistics of tourism flow, and other specific micro aspects which construe urban tourism management and development.

Social and Environmental Conflict Resolution in Tourism:

This is an advanced course designed to achieve assessments of different conflicts in relations between tourism, the environment and the community. The course will familiarize students with definitions and basic principles of conflict management and solution. Students will gain practical experience using simulation games and acquire in-depth knowledge and analytical skills relating to factors, interested parties and possible solutions of tourism conflicts. They will also carry out conflict assessments for existing tourism conflicts (in teamwork).

Aviation Policy and Economy in a Global Era:

The air transportation industry is highly regulated as well as capital and employment intensive, with global operations and effect on the tourism industry. This course will provide the students with knowledge regarding policy, regulatory and economic issues of the air transportation industry from a global perspective outlining the complexity of this industry.