MA Luxury Hospitality Management

Program Overview

The MA Luxury Hospitality Management from the University of West London provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the rapidly growing luxury hospitality sector. The program combines academic study with industry exposure through guest lectures, networking events, and an optional internship route, equipping graduates for a range of careers in brand management, hotel management, and other hospitality roles.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The MA Luxury Hospitality Management is a postgraduate degree designed to equip students with the knowledge, insight, and skills necessary to succeed in the luxury hospitality sector. This sector, within the broader $6 trillion global hospitality industry, is experiencing rapid growth. The program focuses on providing students with a comprehensive understanding of the business environment, customer experience, and brand management within the luxury hospitality industry. Students will gain the ability to design and manage a luxury hospitality brand. The program is delivered in London, a global hub for luxury travel and tourism, providing students with valuable industry exposure, networking opportunities, and real-world learning experiences.

Outline:

The program combines a dedicated academic focus with the study of contemporary managerial and strategic issues within the luxury hospitality sector.

Compulsory Modules:

• Luxury Hospitality Business Environment: This module explores the Luxury Hospitality Business Environment, the Luxury Consumer, and the factors contributing to the sustained growth of this sector.
• Designing the Customer Experience: This module focuses on the opportunities and challenges luxury hospitality businesses face in designing, implementing, and delivering a customer experience.
It incorporates models and concepts from new product and service development theories, innovation management, and service-profit chain theory, providing a comprehensive understanding of “experience-centric” luxury production and consumption.
• Business Performance Analysis: This module aims to equip students with a sound grasp of integrated reporting, enabling them to evaluate the strategy and strategic performance of a luxury hospitality business.
Students will develop a critical awareness of the business’s role as a corporate citizen.
• Brand Reputation Management: This module equips students with the knowledge and skills necessary to manage a luxury hospitality brand and its reputation.
Students will learn to apply social evaluation theory and develop an advanced level of understanding of the importance of luxury brand reputation management, including the anti-laws of marketing a luxury brand and how brand reputation is managed and communicated to different stakeholder groups.
• Strategic Practice in Luxury Hospitality Management: This module explores how managers implement strategy in organizations.
It considers the actions and behaviors of individuals at middle and senior management levels and how these contribute to the practice of strategizing.
• Researching Luxury Organizations: This module prepares students for the final MA project, either a dissertation or internship portfolio.
Students focus on understanding the particularities of luxury organizations' corporate behavior and culture, exploring pertinent issues within Luxury Hospitality organizations and applying a range of research skills and approaches.
• Dissertation or Internship: Students have the option to complete a dissertation or an internship to fulfill the final MA project requirement.
If choosing the dissertation route, students will demonstrate responsibility in planning and managing resources to produce a detailed academic and business research project. If choosing the internship route, students will undertake a period of work experience in the relevant industry sector.

Teaching:

The course is taught by a team of experienced academics and industry professionals.

Teaching Staff:

• Patrick Muigai (Course Leader): Senior Lecturer and Course Leader within the London College of Hospitality and Tourism at the University of West London.
He is the academic link tutor for the collaborative partnership with IIHM India. His areas of interest include the development of student-centered approaches to teaching and learning at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• Ariane Lengyel
• Louise Gill
• Dr. Peter Pelham

Careers:

Upon graduation, students will be equipped for a range of careers within the luxury hospitality sector, including:

• Brand Manager
• Hotel Manager
• Corporate Communications Consultant
• Advertising Account Director
• PR Consultant
• Marketing Manager

Other:

The program features an optional internship route for UK students, providing a minimum of 1,200 hours (30 weeks) of work experience in the luxury hospitality sector. Students are responsible for securing their internship placements, but the University provides support through the Careers Team.

UK

£9,750 per year

International

£17,250 per year