Visitor Attraction and Resort Management

Get into the booming travel and tourism industry through our unique degree partnership with one of Britain’s most popular attractions. For our BA (Hons) in Visitor Attraction and Resort Management, you’ll gain an amazing insight into how Alton Towers Resort operates as a business.

Britain’s travel and tourism industry is worth more than £100 billion and covers everything from hospitality and the accommodation sector, to cruises and even space travel. It also includes specialist areas such as marketing, HR and understanding consumer behaviour.

You will spend a total of 250 hours on paid work placements in your first and second year, either at the Staffordshire-based theme park or at another tourism venue of your choice. This will put your studies into a real-life context – and you’ll even graduate on a rollercoaster!  

There will also be guest speakers from industry, study visits and innovative assessments such as blogs, newspaper articles, business plans and mystery shopper-style evaluations. The degree – the first of its kind in the UK – will prepare you for a wide range of exciting careers linked to the visitor economy.

After completion of the FdA Visitor Attraction and Resort Management programme this course will provide the additional year at level 6 and place the graduate in this discipline at the forefront of the field.

Focus within explores the management fundamentals of working within the thriving Visitor Attraction and Resort Economy.

The Visitor Attraction and Resort Industry (made up of the Tourism, Hospitality and Events sectors) is recognised as major contributors to the UK economy. In 2018, 3.9 million people were employed in the tourism industry with the ONS calculating that the tourism direct gross value added as £71.7 billion. Following the interruption caused by the pandemic, by 2026 the industry is now expected to be worth £27.6bn, a 43% increase.

To achieve and sustain this level of economic contribution it is critical that the sector is able to access highly qualified, skilled graduates who can become the leaders of tomorrow. Within the course, there will be an opportunity to work as a consultant at a chosen visitor attraction working on a mutually agreeable issue within the business.

• Building upon an already achieved FdA qualification the course aims to:
  Provide an enhanced theoretical and ethical debate of in tourism, hospitality, and events literature, culminating an independent research project
• Build upon the transferable skills gained in previous years and in line with the ‘Employability Framework’ to further increase employability both within their profession and in employment.
• Provide opportunities to appraise diverse perspectives applied to a range of contemporary ethical, socio-cultural and financial issues in the visitor economy and to consider realistic responses to the real world.
• Grant opportunities for students to engage with enthusiastic and well qualified staff who engage in research, enterprise and scholarship that informs teaching and learning at all levels.

Work placements

Work placements

The Visitor Attraction and Resort Management course will give you practical experience, skills and knowledge of the business environment, operations and management. We also have links to professional bodies, including ATHE, to improve your employment prospects.

Topics in the first year include managing the customer experience, hospitality and hotel management, and conference and events management. In the second year, you’ll look at marketing and digital communications, health and safety, and the legal and liability side of a business.

In your final year, you’ll explore core functions of management. There is also a module covering contemporary issues, such as how businesses are adapting by using augmented and virtual reality to promote hybrid experiences.

There will also be a creative enterprise, where you’ll draw up your own business plan and pitch your idea for a new visitor attraction. To round it off, there will be a consultancy project, where you will work with a business, and the chance to showcase your work at GradEX, our Final Year Show.

All the tutors have vast experience working in a variety of industries and bring their knowledge to the classroom. It means you’ll graduate industry-ready, with flexible and transferable skills.

During the year, you will explore core functions of management. There is also a module covering contemporary issues, such as how businesses are adapting by using augmented and virtual reality to promote hybrid experiences.

There will also be a creative enterprise, where you’ll draw up your own business plan and pitch your idea for a new visitor attraction. To round it off, there will be a consultancy project, where you will work with a business, and the chance to showcase your work at GradEX, our Final Year Show.All the tutors have vast experience working in a variety of industries and bring their knowledge to the classroom. It means you’ll graduate industry-ready, with flexible and transferable skills