Step behind the scenes and discover what it takes to create experiences people remember, and businesses that make them possible.
What makes a visitor attraction unforgettable? How do you turn a great idea into an experience that works for thousands of visitors? And how do you balance creativity, customer expectations and commercial reality?
On our Visitor Attraction and Resort Management degree, you’ll explore the answers to these questions while developing the specialist knowledge and management skills to shape the future of the visitor economy.
You’ll combine the creativity of experience design with the commercial thinking needed to make visitor-facing businesses succeed. You’ll explore customer experience, attraction development, events, operations, finance, sustainability, people and leadership - understanding not just what makes an experience great, but what happens behind the scenes to make it work.
And you won’t just learn about the industry. You’ll apply your ideas to realistic challenges through visitor experience evaluations, attraction concepts, event projects, destination planning and consultancy-style briefs. You’ll have opportunities to think creatively, solve problems and develop the confidence to make decisions like a future industry professional.
Year 1
Your first year gives you the foundations you need to understand the visitor attraction and resort industry.
You’ll explore what makes successful visitor attractions work, how memorable customer experiences are created and how service culture and the visitor environment shape the visitor journey. Alongside this, you’ll develop the financial, digital, academic and entrepreneurial skills that underpin successful businesses and careers.
Year 2
In your second year, you’ll start thinking beyond the individual experience and look at how attractions, resorts and destinations are managed and developed.
You’ll explore people and operations, consumer behaviour, event experience design and attraction development. You’ll also consider how destinations and resorts can balance memorable experiences with commercial success, sustainability and long-term resilience.
You’ll have opportunities to develop your own ideas and apply your learning to realistic industry challenges, building the commercial awareness and problem-solving skills you’ll need in your future career.
Placement year
Between Year 2 and 3, you can choose to undertake a placement year, putting your learning into practice in a professional environment. This gives you the opportunity to build substantial industry experience, develop your professional network and gain a clearer understanding of where you want your career to take you.
Year 3
In your final year, you’ll move from managing experiences to thinking strategically about the future of the visitor economy.
You’ll explore contemporary business challenges and how leaders can drive change, while considering emerging trends and changing visitor expectations. You’ll also complete an Applied Practitioner Research Project, investigating a real-world issue and developing evidence-based solutions.
Throughout the degree, you’ll connect your learning with the realities of the industry through guest speakers, employer-informed briefs, field-based activities, simulations, case studies and consultancy-style projects. You’ll have opportunities to tackle realistic industry challenges and understand how your knowledge and skills translate into the workplace.
By the time you graduate, you’ll have developed the commercial awareness, creativity, leadership and problem-solving skills to help shape what comes next – whether that’s the future of an attraction, a resort, an event, a destination or another part of the visitor economy.