Masters of Tourism

Otago's Department of Tourism offers a range of graduate and postgraduate diplomas and masters, as well as a PhD in Tourism. Our postgraduate teaching, research and graduates are all world-class.

The Department was the recipient of the 2019 University of Otago Postgraduate Research Culture Excellence Award for best large department.

The Award acknowledges and celebrates departments who are successful in creating a vibrant postgraduate research culture.

The Department was recognised for its great initiatives with evidence of strong student involvement in research outputs.

Study for a MTour and gain a detailed and high level critical understanding of tourism, and related areas, as both an industry and social phenomenon.

The Masters of Tourism degree:

• Can be completed in a twelve-month period, starting in the first semester (February) or second semester (July)

• Is an interdisciplinary programme

• Mixes cutting edge taught courses with independent research

• Deals with core, contemporary, and emerging issues and is taught by some of the leading tourism, leisure, and hospitality researchers in the world

• Is designed to act as a means of enhancing the knowledge and skills of students seeking or wishing to enhance a career in the tourism industry or related areas and as a foundation for students seeking entry to a PhD programme

Graduates will also have gained a detailed and advanced grounding in pertinent research and presentation skills that enable them to actively participate in the tourism industry, associated governmental and non-governmental institutions, and/or academia to become the leaders of tomorrow.

All students are required to undertake two semesters worth of taught papers. During this time they are required to take Advanced Tourism Concepts, and either Tourism Methods and Analysis or Tourism and Development Ethnographic Field School.

Students will also be required to undertake 4 other elective papers (4 Tourism elective papers listed below or 3 Tourism elective papers listed below and a 20 point elective from outside of the Department of Tourism).

The students will also need to complete the paper TOUR 590 Research Project (which is not a taught paper but consists of a thesis). The current list of Tourism electives is below:

• TOUR 411 Tourist Culture

• TOUR 416 Tourism Entrepreneurship and Business (not offered in 2023)

• TOUR 418 Tourism Destination Development

• TOUR 422 Tourism and Global Environmental Change

• TOUR 426 Event Management

• TOUR 421 Global Hospitality Operations (not offered in 2023)

• TOUR 427 Tourism and Development Ethnographic Field School (not offered in 2023)

Information for MTour applicants

Applicants must be a graduate, normally with qualifications requiring a total of at least three years of tertiary study in tourism or a related discipline with an average grade of 70% (B) or higher.

Applicants must meet the University postgraduate English language requirements, if their first language is not English. This must be organised prior to enrolling in the programme, though not necessarily at the time of application to the programme.

Numbers of enrolments for the MTour programme are capped to ensure that students receive a high quality learning experience.

Students will normally begin the Masters in Semester 1, but they may apply to start in Semester 2 if they wish.

A decision on such applications will be made on a case by case basis. Students seeking to start in Semester 2 should note that it will take them fifteen months to complete the course – as at the end of semester 2 they will have to take their summer vacation before returning to the university the following year to finish their studies in the first and second semester.