THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM INDUSTRY - 2025/6

Module Overview

The travel and tourism industry comprises several main sectors, e.g., accommodation, visitor attractions, travel distribution, and sub-sectors of transportation including aviation, cruise, land-based transport and transport infrastructure. This module focuses on the economic and operational characteristics of each sector and sub-sector, and the ways in which they interact in the production of travel and tourism products and services.

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

KNOX Dan (SII DUFE)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The historic development of the travel and tourism industry and its sub-sectors


• Key economic and operational characteristics of the different travel and tourism sectors


• Main operators in each sub-sector of the travel and tourism industry and their roles


• Operational challenges and implications in producing a package of services


• The interaction of main sectors in the production and distribution of travel and tourism products


• Additional issues and trends in the travel and tourism industry and individual sub-sectors

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

In cases where the original group project is not suitable, an individual essay of 750 words will be assigned.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their insight into the various tourism sectors and the extent to which they have gathered and analysed information individually and collectively.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

a) a group project designed to encourage students to further explore aspects of the business of travel and tourism through working with their peers. Through this group-based working, students are expected to constructively engage with their team, navigate and overcome all the challenges, and support team coherence and mutually beneficial learning. Each student group will submit a written report of 3000 words;

b) a take-away examination aimed at assessing the students understanding of key concepts, issues and trends in several areas of travel and tourism operations.

Both formative feedback and summative feedback will be provided on the project.

Formative assessment and Feedback Students are required to submit a project proposal before the final submission of the project report. A project surgery session will be organised to give formative feedback on their research plan based on the submitted proposal. In addition to lecturers written feedback, oral peer feedback will be provided too.

Module aims

• This module aims to examine the development, operation, structure, organisation and trends associated with individual sectors in the broad travel and tourism industry. Each of the sectors under study is analysed in terms of its economic and operational characteristics, while the overall aim of the module is to offer a comprehensive understanding of the travel and tourism industry by examining how different sectors operate and interact with each other.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to provide students with key information about various sectors of the travel and tourism industry to encourage them to explore and evaluate the major characteristics and challenges of the travel and tourism industry.

The teaching and learning methods include:

• lectures designed to provide a framework of knowledge


• exercises to provide opportunities for students to gather and interpret their own material


• tasks to challenge their thinking, and relevant case studies and in-class discussions and presentations are integrated into lectures and seminars

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN1135

Other information

Other Information: This module adopts the University curriculum framework which aims to develop learners with strong capabilities in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience.

This module contributes to the development of the following capabilities:

Employability: This module provides a range of opportunities to develop students' knowledge, skills and capabilities in employability. This module will provide an overview of the economic and operational characteristics of key sectors of the travel and tourism industry. It will enable students to develop a solid knowledge base and critical understanding of the industry. Students will learn about the calculation of some hotel yield management indicators, which allows them to develop their numerical skills. The assessment of the module includes a group project, which enables students to develop their team-working skills and inter-personal communication skills. During seminars, students will participate in group discussions and give oral presentations, so that they can continue to develop these skills.

Digital Capabilities: The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is an essential part of this module. Students will use the online learning platform SurreyLearn, e-library, recorded lecture videos on Panopto, video conferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams to facilitate their learning. Global and Cultural Capabilities: The module introduces key sectors of the travel and tourism industry including their historical development and future trends from a global perspective. Examples and case studies from different cultures will be used in lectures and seminars to allow students to develop a global view. Since students are from different countries and have diverse cultural backgrounds, the group project, class discussions and seminars will enable students to further develop their global and cultural capabilities.

Sustainability: This module covers future trends of the travel and tourism industry; sustainable tourism as one of the trends will be discussed; sustainable operations of key travel and tourism sectors such as hotels and airlines will be discussed in class based on real-world case studies. Resourcefulness and Resilience : The assessment strategy of the module includes both formative assessment (i.e., group project proposal) and summative assessment (group project report and take-away examination).

Feedback on the formative assessment will enable students to reflect on their own performance and continue to improve their work before summative assessment. In addition, students are encouraged to draw a broad range of resources and materials for their assessment. Also, the critical nature of the in-class discussions on various real-world case studies helps foster openness by encouraging students to understand topical issues from multiple and contrasting perspectives. Lastly, for the group project students are expected to navigate various challenges of group-based working, constructively engage with their team, support team coherence and mutually beneficial learning, such as respect an empathy to support other learners and ability to positively respondent to team setbacks.

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.