PhD in Hospitality & Tourism Management

Program Overview

Isenberg's full-time PhD program in hospitality and tourism management equips students with advanced research skills for academic careers. Emphasizing real-world experience, students teach graduate-level classes, specialize in areas like marketing or operations, and contribute to cutting-edge research in the field. Graduates become highly sought-after scholars, professors, and researchers at top institutions worldwide.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Isenberg’s PhD in hospitality and tourism management is a full-time, residential program that prepares candidates for academic careers in hospitality and tourism. The program develops strong research skills that enable graduates to conduct and publish scholarly research with competence and confidence. Students can study any area of interest that applies to hospitality and tourism and gain real-world teaching experience that allows them to excel in university teaching in their areas of interest.

Outline:

• Core Courses: Students must take core courses in theory and research methods, as well as electives and minor classes.
• Concentrations: Students can specialize in one focus area, including marketing/consumer behavior, leadership, information technology and social media, operational research and finance.
• Qualifying Exam: Students must pass a qualifying exam in Year 1.
• Comprehensive Exam: Students must pass a comprehensive exam in Year 2.
• Dissertation: Students are responsible for creating and defending a dissertation during the final years of the program.
• Teaching: All candidates teach graduate-level classes at Isenberg and have 100% responsibility in their classrooms.
• Sample Required HTM Courses:
• Foundations of Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Research Design
• Multivariate Analysis
• Structural Equation Model
• Seminar in Tourism Theory and Research
• Seminar in Hospitality Research
• Services Marketing/Management Research
• Degree Timeline:
• Year 1:
Coursework, including statistics, research methods, and theory courses, and research electives; Qualifying exam
• Year 2:
Coursework, including marketing and management courses, research electives and minor area courses; Comprehensive exam

Teaching:

• Faculty: Students work closely with faculty on multiple research projects.
• Teaching Experience: All candidates teach graduate-level classes at Isenberg and have 100% responsibility in their classrooms.

Careers:

• Potential Career Paths: Our PhD graduates become top scholars, professors and researchers at the leading hospitality and tourism programs in the US and abroad.

Other:

• Research Focus: Faculty are working in a wide variety of research domains, investigating such areas as:
• Hotel and Destination Branding
• Service Experience Management
• Impact and Performance Studies in Tourism and Hospitality Operations
• Quality-of-Life and Tourism and Hospitality Research
• Sustainability in Tourism and Hospitality
• Strategic Management and Finance
• Revenue Management
We welcome applicants who are self-motivated, committed, and independent initiators and team players.
• Program Benefits:
• One-on-one mentoring and advising by renowned faculty.
• The opportunity to specialize in one focus area.
• Real-world preparation for careers in academia.
• Students also graduate with a PhD in Management, making them more marketable in the job field and more knowledgeable in the classroom.