Learn to lead in the fast-paced hospitality industry, one of the largest career fields in the world.
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Hospitality management is a specialized field of management and leadership within the hospitality services industry. Hospitality services include everything from dining and general guest services to lodging, tourism, travel, sports, food services, entertainment and more. Your role is to help sell experiences and make customers feel welcome and connected to your business.
Why study hospitality management? As a hospitality management major at Merrimack College, you’ll explore the diverse areas of the service industry through courses in marketing, tourism, hospitality, human resources, leadership, emotional intelligence, organizational behavior and more. Meeting new people, seeing new places, acting quickly on your feet and keeping clients happy are all essential elements of this career path.
The Girard School of Business hospitality management curriculum is business-focused, driven by the hospitality industry. You’ll graduate with an in-demand degree from Merrimack and be prepared to launch a career based on world-class excellence as a hospitality leader.
By concentrating in hospitality management, you will:
There are a number of internships and field experiences available in both Boston, a 20-minute ride from campus, and the surrounding Merrimack Valley area. You’ll work alongside professionals in hotel management, event planning, hospitality operations, tourism management and other hospitality industry jobs. You’ll also have access to industry expert speaker series and Merrimack’s O’Brien Center for Career Development to guide you with the resources, connections and tools you need to get career ready for a position in the hospitality industry.
To be successful as a manager, you’ll need to develop a mixture of soft and hard skills. Soft skills are especially attractive to recruiters because they are essential to guest satisfaction. Hard skills like business knowledge and attention to detail are also crucial for an organization’s success.
You will learn both of these skill types in the hospitality management program, and you will also learn how to interact with people from different cultures and backgrounds. These valuable skills can be carried into roles in other industries as well. Leadership opportunities in the hospitality field exist in hotels, restaurants, resorts, casinos, cruise lines, ecotourism and clubs.
Career paths include opportunities in:
