Bachelor in Tourism

Bachelor Tourism (Hotel, Resort and Tourism Management)

This program is for students who aspire to become industry leaders or entrepreneurs. You may be the general manager of a hotel, resort, casino or club; the director of marketing for a hospitality organization; a real estate developer; or property owner. Whether you find yourself working in a small, privately owned business or a global multiunit corporation, you’ll be prepared to quickly advance into a management role. Graduates finish with more than a diploma – our real-world experiences and expert faculty enable you to build a strong resume and a solid set of industry contacts to help further your career.

• Gain hands-on experience working in one of two on-campus restaurants or at nearby Lake Placid, a world-class resort destination
• Develop a broad skill set for managing hotels, resort properties and other hospitality venues
• Study advanced topics in marketing, human resource management, finance and accounting
• Work directly with faculty and industry professionals on management-level projects
• Develop a competitive edge through semester-long study abroad opportunities in places such as Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Costa Rica and Ecuador

Join an academic tradition that’s respected worldwide. Our graduates are sought by prestigious properties around the globe because of the hands-on education and training they receive. This tradition is even older than the college itself – hospitality has been a hallmark of Paul Smith’s since the property’s original operation as a top-quality resort hotel.

Key Facts

• B.S. Degree
• 122 credit hours (minimum) required -
  • 61 credits must be in liberal arts and sciences
  • 43 credits must be in 300/400 level courses
• 800 hours of industry work experience is required -
  • 200 hours (minimum) required at each location
  • this is not credit-bearing and there is no tuition fee

Career Options

• Corporate Events Coordinator
• Property Manager
• Hotel Sales
• Front Office Manager
• Restaurant Manager
• Hotel/Resort Events Coordinator
• Hotel Operations
• Consultant
• Food and Beverage Management
• Director of Housekeeping

Required Courses

Program Core Requirements

• Hotel, Resort & Tourism Orientation
• First Year Seminar
• Food Service Sanitation
• Nutrition
• Financial Accounting
• Hotel Accounting
• Hospitality Futures
• Field Studies in Hospitality
• Strategic Planning
• Financial Decision Making
• Cultural Enology
• Hospitality Business Simulation

Diversity Courses (choose 1)

• Gerontology
• Shattering Gender Stereotypes
• American Labor Movement
• History of the World in 6 Glasses

Customer Relations Courses (choose 3)

• Principles of Marketing
• Principles of Management
• Dining Room & Kitchen Management
• Baking Retail
• Intro to Food & Beverage
• Service
• Front Office Property Management

Management Courses (choose 4)

• Recreation & Resort Marketing & Management
• Major Event & Festival Planning
• Human Resource Management
• Operations Management
• The Family Enterprise
• Business Ethics & Decision Making
• Facilities Planning & Environmental Management
• Global Markets
• Management Information Systems

When it comes to cookie-cutter colleges, Paul Smith’s is anything but. In fact, we’re the only 4-year college inside the boundaries of the world-famous “forever wild” Adirondacks. Students at Paul Smith’s College experience a hands-on education that combines proven career training with a meaningful exploration of self, society and the earth:

• if you’re a forestry major, you’ll play a role in the sustainable management of the college’s 14,000-acre property
• if you’re a fisheries and wildlife science major, you will learn to tag and track different species
• if you’re an entrepreneurial business studies major, you will write a working business plan for a local operation

Living and learning here require a special kind of student – someone who values the abundance of our natural landscape and embraces our spirit of creative self-reliance. We call ourselves Smitties. Sounds like you? Let’s talk!

Our Mission

Paul Smith’s is unlike any college in America. Our location and historic legacy offer students unparalleled opportunities for hands-on learning in the fields of environmental stewardship, forestry management, hospitality and more. Our unique approach is to combine experiential and traditional learning, using the classroom as a launching point for fieldwork, laboratory research, internships and on-the-job experience. As a result, Paul Smith’s College graduates leave with the solid academic background, confidence and real-world experience to thrive in their chosen fields.

Mission Statement

Paul Smith’s College actively educates students to become productive citizens by combining experiential and traditional instruction through our commitment to discovery, discipline, and creativity. Our Paul Smith’s College community, residing within the Adirondack Park, promotes economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Why Paul Smith’s? It’s About the Experience

Here’s the formula: Our academics + our faculty + our location = a college experience you can’t get anywhere else. With approximately 900 students Paul Smith’s is a tight-knit, supportive, and conscientiously “green” college community. We offer 17 Bachelors and seven Associate degree programs.

From Campus to Career

Nine out of ten Smitties — that’s what we call Paul Smith’s alumni — land a job or go to grad school within six months of graduation. Our graduates include environmental policymakers, food truck entrepreneurs, park rangers, resort managers, and Fortune 500 CEOs.

Life in the Adirondacks

They don’t call us the College of the Adirondacks for nothing. Our campus is located inside the six-million-acre Adirondack Park – and when you live here, you become an Adirondacker. We have a Woodsmen Team and a championship snowshoeing team. And every February, you’ll gather with thousands of fellow Adirondackers at Saranac Lake to celebrate the East Coast’s longest-running Winter Carnival. In warm weather, borrow one of the college’s canoes, hike miles of trails at your doorstep, or tackle the campus high ropes course. In winter, you can hit the indoor campus climbing wall and the Olympic ski runs at Whiteface Mountain only 30 minutes up the road.

What Can the Paul Smith’s Experience Do for You?

Come see for yourself. Schedule a campus visit or talk to an admissions officer by calling (800) 421-2605 or emailing us at admissions@paulsmiths.edu.