International Hospitality Management & Festival & Event

Edinburgh offers an ideal place to study international hospitality management and festival & event.

With its rich history, abundance of attractions and world-famous festivals, the city is a centre for travellers and tourists from all over the world. Hospitality and tourism businesses flourish here, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to gain work experience.

This course allows you to pursue a career in both the hospitality and festival and event industries. With international hospitality management at the core, it has been designed to meet the current needs of the industry.

Similar to our International Hospitality Management, you'll study the principles of hospitality management, specialising in festival and event. We teach our students in an applied way, which means that you will be able to put your learnings into practice. You'll apply this knowledge to practical situations on an industry-based work placement or live project, preparing you for a career in the hospitality and festival and event industries.

Alternatively you can choose to study abroad through our international exchange links in Europe and the USA.

This course is studied full-time over four years. You'll learn by a variety of teaching methods including lectures, tutorials and independent study. There is a work placement option in Year 3.

We offer tuition that is supported by highly experienced teaching staff and strong industry links.

Lead Academics

Dr Paul Barron is Professor in Hospitality and Tourism Management at Edinburgh Napier University. Upon completing his first degree in Hotel Management, Paul embarked on a successful, 8 year, management career in the Hospitality industry. Paul commenced his academic career as a lecturer in Hospitality Management at Glasgow Caledonian University and completed his MSc in Human Resource Management. Paul then spent 11 years as Senior Lecturer The University of Queensland, Australia and was awarded his PhD in 2003. This study formed the largest examination of international students' educational experiences in Australian universities and is held as a key element of research in the field of hospitality management education. Paul joined Edinburgh Napier University in 2007 as Reader in Hospitality Management and gained his Professorship in August 2015. Paul continues to study the education experience of students studying hospitality, tourism and events at university and, more recently has undertaken funded research that examined the emerging Generation Y consumer in the UK, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. Current projects are regarding employee engagement, knowledge transfer and an analysis of career destinations and aspirations of festival and event graduates.

Dr Ahmed Hassanien's professional experience includes both practical and academic roles in the tourism industry. He has more than 22 years of teaching experience at a number of international Universities. He has reviewed many academic articles for international academic periodicals. In 2004, he won the 'Teacher of the Year' award from the University of Wolverhampton. Also, he was awarded the 'Caparo Prize' for the most outstanding piece of pedagogic research in 2006. He is currently an associate editor of the International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management and is on the editorial board of The International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals. Ahmed has published widely in international refereed conferences and periodicals. Most of his research work is done in collaboration with international colleagues and research students.

Dr Stephen Taylor is Programme Leader for the MSc Tourism and Hospitality Suite which covers four named MSc awards (International Tourism Destination Management; International Tourism Marketing; International Hospitality Management; International Heritage & Cultural Tourism Management). His main teaching is Natural Area Tourism which is available as a third year (Level 9) module and as a postgraduate module (Level 11). In addition, he teaches Global Service Management (Level 9) and contributes to three further modules: Leadership & Innovation (Level 10); Global Hospitality Management (Level 10); and Management of International Hospitality Organisations (Level 11). His main research interests centre around the natural environment. This includes the governance of natural areas (e.g. national parks) and the recreational use of natural areas. In respect of the latter, a specific focus is upon adventure tourism, and in particular, mountain tourism. Current research is focused upon the economic and environmental impacts of mountaineering tourism on Kyrgyzstan's 7,134 metre Peak Lenin. 

Your qualification acts as a stepping stone to graduate management training schemes with major multinational hotel groups, or can be a route into junior management positions in a range of sectors.

This course offers excellent preparation for employment in:

• Food and beverage management
• Accommodation services
• Human resources management
• Financial management
• Sales and marketing
• Tourism management
• Retail management