MBA - Tourism Management

Compulsory modules

The MBA Tourism and Visitor Economy Management offers a transformative learning journey for anyone ready to deepen their expertise and drive meaningful change in the global tourism sector. Set in the inspirational surroundings of Ambleside, students engage directly with the Lake District National Park—an ideal environment for experiential education. The programme focuses on student development across key areas: critical thinking, applied research, strategic leadership, and professional practice. With each module, students build the skills to analyse complex industry challenges, design innovative solutions, and lead with ethical purpose. Learning is hands-on, collaborative, and anchored in real-world contexts, ensuring graduates are not just informed—but empowered to shape the future of tourism.

• Applied Research Methods
  This module aims to prepare you for industry-based research and provides a comprehensive understanding of research methodologies, data collection and analysis methods, as well as the ethical considerations in tourism research. Applying these methods to real-world tourism challenges will develop your ability to criticality evaluate information and make informed decisions that contribute to the growth and competitiveness of an organisation.
• Resources Management
  This module aims to provide you with the tools to optimise the use of available resources (financial, human, technological) to ensure operational efficiency. Designed around a resource management simulation, you will utilise the financial tools associated with the management of business at both a strategic and operational level, measure business performance and consider the profit orientation of businesses in a range of contexts.
• Visitor Experience Management
  This module aims to provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to design, manage, and enhance visitor experiences in tourism and visitor economy. Site visits and case studies will be used to highlight the complexities of the visitor experience and the limitations of applying existing theoretical frameworks in a real-world context.
• Industry Work Based Learning
  This module aims to promote the integration of theoretical and practical learning and facilitate the development of skills that are relevant to the world of graduate employment. Your placement will give you the opportunity to apply skills and knowledges from previous modules in real-world contexts. This exposure will help you develop practical skills, improve employability and provide better understanding of workplace culture in the tourism and visitor economy.
• Industry Consultancy
  Innovative solutions that contribute to the growth and competitiveness of your tourism business.
• Strategic Impact Portfolio
  This module aims to equip you with holistic and strategic skills of business management within the tourism sector by integrating key disciplines including human resources management, marketing, finance, innovation and leadership. By the end of this module, you will be able to showcase real-world problem-solving skills, and strategic thinking developing the qualities needed to lead effectively in a dynamic tourism environment.

Pathway modules

Heritage and Culture

• Managing Heritage Attractions
  Explore the increasing utilisation of heritage and cultural resources as visitor attractions in both urban and rural locations in the UK and abroad.
• Regional Literary Tourism, Culture and Heritage
  Gain an understanding of the influence of key writers and literary texts on the development of a regional ‘place myth’ (Urry) and on subsequent literary tourism and cultural heritage.

Pathway modules

Sustainable Tourism

• Sustainable and Strategic Collaboration in Tourism
  Investigate and apply the theory and practice of sustainability and collaboration in tourism related business settings.
• Transformational Tourism
  Consider the most up to date thinking in relation to sustainable travel and tourism by focusing on the potential for tourism to transform organisations and destinations through increasingly greater levels of change.

Pathway modules

Cultural Events

• Festival Management
  Explore all aspects of the event lifecycle from concept to delivery and identify the factors that contribute to a successful event.
• Events and Rural Regeneration
  Work with a live client at a local level to evaluate the impacts of events; the challenges involved in managing stakeholder expectations and the implications for long term sustainability.

Pathway modules

Hotel Management

• Strategic Hotel Management
  Develop the decision making skills attached to generating a strategic vision and managing business performance in an increasingly fragmented and dynamic operating environment.
• Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  Consider the supply chain of all goods and services that culminate in the hotel guest experience and operate through business to business relationships that potentially combine to deliver sustainable improvements alongside financial performance.