Master degree
Tourism
Reasons you should choose this programme
Aalborg
2-year educationEnglish
Master degree
Tourism
Reasons you should choose this programme
Aalborg
2-year educationEnglish
Prepare for a career in one of the world's most dynamic industries
The Tourism Master’s degree at Aalborg University is a two-year programme which is offered in English at Aalborg University's campus in Aalborg. The programme combines practice and theory through project-oriented learning, with a focus on the following areas:
- Tourism and innovation
- Tourism and cultural encounters
- Market communication and destination branding
- Tourism consumption
- Tourism and sustainability
- Tourism policy and governance
AAU’s Tourism MA degree draws on a wide range of perspectives from social science and humanities disciplines with a strong focus on critical thinking, analytical skills, teamwork, and creative problem-solving. The programme has an international outlook drawing on cases and examples from around the world.
A trademark of the Tourism programme - and Aalborg University - is its unique pedagogical model of teaching: the problem-based, project-oriented model. With this method, a large part of the semester teaching revolves around complex real-life problems that students investigate through group projects. This work process is supported by courses, literature and cooperation with firms and other organisations.
The Tourism MA opens many different career possibilities in the public and private sector, from marketing and communication to project management. The programme is flexible and allows you to tailor the education to your interests and career goals, through your choice of semester project and thesis topic and the option of an internship in a tourism organisation of your choice.
Academic content
Job and career
A master’s degree in Tourism will provide you with analytical, communication, teamwork and problem solving skills you need to develop your career in tourism in Denmark or internationally. Our graduates work in communication, management, consultancy, and policy development roles in the public and private sector organisations around the world.
We have a strong focus on careers throughout the Master programme, with close links to businesses and policymakers, guest speakers from industry and NGOs, innovation camps with external organisations and collaboration with AAU Career and Job Centre. You have the opportunity to undertake an internship and collaborate with tourism related organisations on your semester project or Master thesis
You will also learn how to network with tourism and other relevant professionals, reflect on your personal competences and career goals, develop your CV and professional social media profile, learn how to write effective applications, and have one-to-one guidance with Career Advisors.
Examples of our graduates’ jobs:
- Marketing manager, Visit Denmark
- Development Consultant, Danish Coast and Nature Tourism
- Senior Consultant, Epinion
- Sales Consultant, Web-Koncept
- Project Coordinator, Comwell
Traineeship
Undertaking an internship gives you the opportunity to put theory into practice, while gaining valuable work experience, exploring a career path in tourism, networking with professionals in your field and developing transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving and teamwork in a professional setting.
All students on the Tourism Master’s programme at Aalborg University have the opportunity to undertake an internship for four months in the 3rd semester – in Denmark or abroad.
Recent internship placements include:
- Visit Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Arctic Adventures, Reykjavik, Iceland
- Danish Embassy, Tokyo, Japan
- Hilton Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic
- Centre for Green Transitions, Aalborg, Denmark
- Danish Immigration Museum, Elk Horn, USA
You can also choose to spend the 3rd semester following the AAU start up programme where you will work with an experienced entrepreneur on your own business idea.
Another option in 3rd semester is to take 30 ECTS at another university (or another Master’s programme at AAU) during the 3rd semester. This gives you the opportunity to study abroad and deepen your knowledge of tourism related subjects, such as management, entrepreneurship, marketing, or development studies, among many others.
Collaboration
Research and teaching activities in Tourism at Aalborg University build on close collaboration with both private and public organisations in the tourism industry. Joint projects enable us to make use of academic competences in the development of new concepts, to improve marketing campaigns and adapt organisational strategies to a constantly changing market. These practical research and development projects provide central input for the teaching activities.
A few examples of collaboration projects
- Demands and Decision Making in Family Holidays in collaboration with Visit Denmark
- Experience Design on the Island of Møn in collaboration with Team Møn and Møn Tourism Board
- Assessment of the Tourism Policy Programme for Erhvervs- og Boligstyrelsen
- Branding Blokhus in collaboration with Pandrup Business Council
- Storytelling Development along the Limfjord in collaboration with Destinations in North & West Jutland.
During my 9th semester in the Tourism MA programme I had an internship at Svinkløv Badehotel. My main tasks were to evaluate the previous season and implement changes, do research, and develop a tourism project in cooperation with the owner. This internship has helped me to understand the complexity of the tourism industry and how to apply knowledge and theories from the programme in the "real world".
Admission and requirements
Get help at AAU to start your career in Denmark
AAU Career helps you on your way from student life to job life in Denmark by giving you the tools to examine your options and find out what to do.
While studying at AAU, you can participate in career and job-related events, find help on our website, and book a personal career counselling session to talk about e.g.:
- Finding your way in your career
- Danish working culture
- Application and CV the Danish way
- What you can offer an employer
- How to go about job search in Denmark – both student job, internship and full-time job
Contact and student counselling
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