Since January 2011, the HSST Academy has been offering the study program
Start: Every January and June
Advantages for tourism professionals
Get fit for your dream job in tourism with our part-time study program
Advantages for companies
Take advantage of our range of studies to attract and retain motivated employees by offering them this part-time course of study.
Our degree programs were accredited for hybrid study as sychronous e-learning by London Metropolitan University on December 9, 2022. Since January 2023, our students can also study synchronously online with us.
For more specific information about registration and the study itself, please use the registration form. For specific questions, please contact Mr. Dirk Aufermann directly by email at dirk.aufermann@hsst-academy.com
The goal of the program is to expand the development opportunities of young professionals in Hamburg’s tourism industry. Many employers, as well as trainees, have desired a bachelor’s degree program that would gain academic recognition in an international setting. London Metropolitan University (LMU) and the Hamburg School of Shipping and Transportation (HSST) have jointly designed a degree program that not only follows these wishes, but also recognizes completed commercial vocational training as a major part of the degree.
The Bachelor of International Travel Tourism Management program is designed to last three years, with the first two years already completed through vocational training in the dual system. Thus, the study program in Hamburg can be completed within approximately 13 months. It is done part-time on Wednesday evenings and on Sunday.
Upon successful completion of your studies, you can achieve a maximum of 180 credit points according to ECTS or 360 credit points according to UKCATS, taking into account your achievements in the professional degree.
Credit points according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) express the total study effort.
Each individual seminar is completed as a module and assessed with ECTS.
The guiding principle of the program is to combine academic skills with professional expertise and experience, which is provided by the academic underpinnings of London Met’s bachelor degree program and the tourism business curriculum. London Met has a long tradition of academic training for the Travel & Tourism fields. HSST is an established provider of vocational training in the tourism sector
The team of lecturers for the course is made up of experts from the tourism industry as well as lecturers from technical colleges and universities. The seminar language is English or bilingual.
The program is aimed at young professionals with a desire to earn an academic degree while working and those who would like to subsequently enter a postgraduate master’s program at other universities.
Work experience is an important part of any business degree. The BA ITTM students have already collected these during their dual training. The goal of the Workplace Report entry module is to link practical experience with the academic approach to work.
Theoretical backgrounds and interrelationships of the companies should thus be better recognized, analyzed and understood. This module concludes with a brief description of the companies and the departments in which the students gained their work experience. First analysis tools are applied to the own company.
This presentation should include, for example, the company’s products and services, markets served, competitive situation, historical development, financial structure and organizational forms.
The preparation of a scientific paper is one of the most important and at the same time most difficult achievements of a graduate. It requires systematic preparation and reflection. The Research Methodology module teaches the procedures, methods and analytical tools required for this. Among other things, students learn,
After introducing different management methods, this module deals with the influences of culture and cultural differences on organization and management in international areas of tourism. After introducing different concepts of culture, the main focus will be on how international, economic activity in tourism and multicultural employee structures influence management decisions and corporate culture.
Topics such as intercultural contact, multicultural teamwork and cultural diversity will be the subject of the lectures. In the context of human resource management, requirements for the deployment of employees abroad are also discussed.
Students will learn to use the different cultural approaches as well as their own cultural background to grasp necessities of modifying management strategies due to cultural versatility of human resources when deployed domestically and abroad.
With the help of this module, students are introduced to concepts, method and strategies of tourism marketing from the entrepreneur’s perspective. The problem of providing financial resources, time resources and personnel for marketing activities are highlighted.
The importance of marketing for the economic success of a tourism enterprise is elaborated. Methods of market observation and the derivation of promising strategies, in particular far-reaching pricing decisions but also other components of the marketing mix round off the module.
Topics of total quality management, branding and benchmarking are explained using tourism examples.
This module introduces students to the basic structures of tourism as well as its main trends in recent history. It deals with the aspect of management of companies that wants to implement the new knowledge gained in market analyses advantageously in the business process.
From the point of view of sustainability, measures for the development of transport services are examined. The conflict between economic necessities and the influence of politics in opening up new markets for tourism on the one hand and demands for sustainable tourism on the other hand will be explained by means of case studies and possible solution strategies will be worked out.
Destination management starts with an introduction of marketing techniques and their applicability for selling the product “destination”. Using case studies from the international world of tourism, students gain the ability to design different strategies of marketing for different destinations.
Market segmentation, target group analysis and positioning in the tourism market will be requirements within the case studies. A defense of one’s own strategies and the application of different types of performance measurement round out the module.
All the theory is focused on the specifics of marketing tourist products in the in-depth phase. The technical implementation, e.g. the use of global distribution systems or marketing apps, will also be the subject of the seminar.
In this module, students will have the opportunity to apply the business strategies they have learned to the management of tour operators, travel agents and tourism service providers in the context of global competition.
The applications are based on case studies in the current tourism market. Students gain an understanding of the scope and framework of management decisions. Impacts of government and other requirements (e.g., Open Skies) are a topic here, as are impacts on customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Strategic management is understood here as a main pillar of the module. The need to develop sustainable strategies is met by interweaving theory and practice.
This module builds on the knowledge of the concept of sustainability that students have already learned in other modules. Students learn to evaluate sustainable concepts along the tourism value chain and beyond, and apply management techniques to optimize these concepts.
The importance of securing one’s own economic resources in the long term is to become a permanent component in the decision-making processes of junior tourism management staff. A portfolio of different sustainability techniques will be applied for applicability in various current baseline situations. The political and social framework conditions in the destination should be taken into account in an up-to-date form.
Corporate marketing, for example in the form of corporate social responsibility, is linked to the pursuit of sustainable business.
This module provides students with the opportunity to investigate and research a current topic in the field of Travel and Tourism. It represents the final project in which students apply the skills and knowledge acquired in the previous modules.
In a short presentation, the chosen topic is introduced to the plenary and the students explain the reasons for the choice of topic, methodology of the investigation, literature and information research and other aspects of their project. The module concludes with a comprehensive Bachelor Thesis on the chosen topic.
The thesis can be done in cooperation with a company (probably the company where the students are employed). This approach is in the interest of both parties, the students as well as the companies. The student has a practical field of investigation and strengthens the bond with the company.
Ideally, new fields of employment are opened up.
Abitur or advanced technical college entrance qualification and
a completed vocational training
or other comparable training
We are happy to answer your questions
Please contact Mr. Dirk Aufermann