I. About the Discipline
The SBS program unit for Master of Tourism Management (MTA) officially approved and established in 2021 has a state-level first-class unit for undergraduate professional construction (Hospitality Management, and Business Administration), a Shanghai plateau discipline (Business Administration for the Orientation of Tourism Management), Shanghai pilot programs for applied undergraduate education (Tourism Management, and Hospitality Management), various teaching and S&T supporting platforms (including a national-level experimental teaching demonstration center, an off-campus practice education base for college and university students of the Ministry of Education, a nationally-led training base of the Hotel Reception Program for the World Skills Competition, a humanities and social science research base for Shanghai universities, the think tank of Shanghai universities, the secretariat of the Special Committee of Shanghai Tourism Standardization Technical Committee and others). There are 18 on-campus laboratories and 4 joint practice teaching centers of enterprises. Besides, the unit has carried out talent training jointly with hotel groups (including Marriott, Accor, Intercontinental, Donghu, JINMAO and others) as well as various enterprises (such as CYTS, Ctrip, LvMama, Disney, and CITS International Convention and Exhibition Co., Ltd.), and established more than 60 industry-teaching-research integrated practice bases.
The MTA faculty is composed of full-time teachers and industry experts. The unit has established a reasonably-structured quality and promising young teacher team with innovation and cooperation spirits, including 42 full-time teachers (50% with senior professional titles and 80% with a doctoral degree). The faculty is characterized by the advantages of high-level applied research, rich practical experience and prominent social service capabilities. The discipline team includes scholars of the “Thousand Talents Program”, members of the Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, winners of Shanghai Famous Teachers, leaders of the coaching team for the World Skills Competition, Director of the Foreign Tourism Department, and heads of well-known hotels. They have been responsible for more than 50 provincial-, ministerial-level and higher-level scientific research projects (including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Social Science Foundation of China, the Humanities and Social Sciences Project of the Ministry of Education, and the scientific research projects of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), published high-level papers in top domestic and international journals, presided over the compilation of multiple hotel and tourism-related industry standards, local standards and group standards, and have several decision consulting results approved by domestic and foreign political leaders.
By the end of 2021, the College has deeply cooperated with world-renowned schools such as EHL Hospitality Business School (Switzerland), the University of Northampton (the UK), the Northern Arizona University (the USA), the University of Oklahoma (the USA), the University of South Carolina (the USA), and the Budapest Business School (Hungary) in mutual visits of teachers and students, academic exchanges, lectures, cooperative construction of courses, and joint training of undergraduates, achieving staged remarkable results and breakthroughs in the process of building a domestic first-class and world-renowned college of Hospitality Management that integrates industry and education.
II. Cultivation Goals
This master’s degree program aims to cultivate high-quality application-oriented operation and management professionals with a firm political stance and a global and strategic vision. Upon possessing solid theoretical literacy and practical ability and mastering professional knowledge and skills in tourism management, students will be able to focus on tourism and hotel industry, tourism destinations and exhibition industries, as well as tourism e-commerce, tourism real estate, tourism finance, tourism health care, and other emerging tourism industries and sectors, and be qualified to engage in technical work such as resource development and planning, tourism investment and big data analysis.
III. Program Features
The program has been committed to training international application-oriented talents with the combination of localized theoretical research and practical application from an international perspective.
1. Characteristic Research Direction. The program specially sets up the research direction of Hotel Operation and Management, as SBS has leading advantages in the practical teaching conditions, teacher resources, discipline development foundation, and school-running platform support in this direction. With an international and practical team of teachers led by authoritative subject leaders and industry executives, the program has an advantageous position in the scientific research and practice fields such as domestic Hospitality Management, tourism real estate and investment.
2. In-depth Integration of Production and Education. In conjunction with the well-known enterprises in the tourism and pan-hotel industry, the program unit has benchmark Shanghai’s goal of building a national pilot city for production-education integration, and conducted in-depth cooperation with leading enterprises in the industry such as Donghu Group, Jinjiang Group and Ctrip Group; it has regularly organized student practice, experimental teaching and research at the practices, and designed on-site research and study routes to enhance the involvement, site experience and gaining in the MTA study.
3. International Talent Training. SBS has established a mechanism for in-depth cooperation with famous European and American universities in hotel operation & management and regional tourism development and management to jointly build an international high-quality talent training system and curriculum construction system.
IV. Research Fields
The master unit currently has two research fields -- Hotel Operation and Management, and Regional Tourism Development and Management.
1. Hotel Operation and Management
Taking economics, management science and marketing as the theoretical basis, and guided by the theory and methods of tourism enterprise management, the direction focuses on the brand strategy of “Shanghai Service”, and centers on theoretical and practical research on international hotel asset investment and income management, modern hotel marketing management, hotel service quality management, hotel HR management, modern hotel full-value-chain management and hotel group management and service management under the background of “Internet +”.
2. Regional Tourism Development and Management
Based on multi-disciplinary theories and methods (including tourism planning, real estate investment, finance, statistics, etc.), relying on the Tourism and Business Big Data Research Center and databases of tourism commercial real estates and tourism finance, the direction focuses on theoretical and practical research on the survey and evaluation of tourism destination resources, the development and planning of tourism projects, tourism marketing, the management of tourist attractions, the operation and management of travel agencies, tourism real estate and investment, tourism finance, regional tourism education, and other fields.
