Think about the best travel location you’ve ever heard about. Now imagine working there. In the 21st century, travel is more exciting than ever, with people traversing the globe in growing numbers. Hospitality and Tourism: Traveling the Globe will introduce you to a thriving industry that caters to the needs of travelers through managing hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, resorts, theme parks, and any other kind of hospitality you can imagine. Operating busy tourist locations, creating marketing around the world of leisure and travel, spotting trends, and planning tasteful events are just a few of the key aspects you will explore in this course as you locate your own career niche in this exciting field.
Prerequisites: None
Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to...
- Define the parameters, characteristics, and business types that make up of hospitality and tourism industry.
- Trace the development and importance of, and current trends affecting, the hospitality and tourism industry.
- Define career paths within the hospitality industry and the personal characteristics required of the industry’s employees.
- Describe different types of hotels and differences in the organization of responsibilities among hotel staff members.
- Discuss hotel practices related to room counts and overbooking and its possible consequences.
- Describe different types of food-related businesses.
- Define and discuss the functions of front of the house versus the back of the house operations.
- Consider how managed services differ from restaurants.
- Define and identify the different aspects of tourism, including impacts of, influences on, career positions within, tourism as well as the unique nature of ecotourism.
- Compare different types of meetings and events and career areas available in the planning of each.
- Identify major steps in planning and marketing an event.
- Compare for-profit and nonprofit leisure and recreation sites in modern society.
- Identify types of government-sponsored, nonprofit, and commercial recreation.
- Discuss the history of amusement and theme parks and the role and responsibilities of park managers.
- Define terminology related to cruise ships, ocean liners, and cabin choices.
- Examine some of the changes and challenges cruise ships are facing today.
- Identify different types of resorts, and discuss how resorts handle common issues and challenges.
Course Outline:
Unit 1: Introduction to Hospitality and Tourism
Unit 2: Careers in the Hospitality and Tourism Field
Unit 3: Hotels
Unit 4: Restaurants and Food Service
Unit 5: Travel Planning
Unit 6: Event Planning and Conventions / Exhibitions
Unit 7: Theme Parks and Recreation
Unit 8: Cruise Ships and Resorts
Resources Included: Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.
Additional Costs: None
Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue diplomas. A final score out of total points earned will be submitted to your school mentor for conversion to their own letter grading system.
Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.
Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube.
Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/
Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.
Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building and other forms of authentic assessments.
Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:
- Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
- Download and install software
- Use a messaging service similar to email
- Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
- Open attachments shared in messages
- Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
- Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
- Save a file as a .pdf
- Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
- Insert images or links into a file or html editor
- Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
- Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
- Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
- Use presentation and graphics programs
- Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
- Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
- Create and maintain usernames and passwords
Additional Information: None