The Tourism Management Department was established within the Faculty of Tourism at Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University in 2020 and admitted its first students in the Fall Semester of the 2020-2021 Academic Year. The aim of the Tourism Management Department is to meet the increasing personnel needs in the tourism sector, provide tourism services to individuals, families, and society, inform individuals, families, and society about tourism, and train professionals who can deliver tourism services according to world standards within the framework of scientific data and professional ethical rules. Additionally, the department aims to train tourism professionals who are in collaboration with other disciplines related to tourism, closely follow scientific and technological developments in the field, work for the effective and efficient execution of tourism services in our country, and the enhancement of the quality of life of our people, have acquired the highest level of professional knowledge and skills, can think analytically, are contemporary, creative, and respectful of human rights and freedoms. In line with this aim, the Tourism Management Department continues its educational activities, aiming to train individuals who are proficient in foreign languages, possess basic management and tourism knowledge, have communication skills, vision, and ethical awareness required by management, are successful in human relations, can easily apply theoretical knowledge in practice, can think analytically to solve management problems, and are productive and inquisitive.
The Tourism Management Department offers a four-year undergraduate tourism education. In the first three years (six semesters) of the education period, students are required to take theoretical courses included in the education and training curriculum. The 6+2 applied education model is implemented in the Tourism Management Department. In this context, there is both a compulsory internship and a compulsory on-the-job training practice in the department. Students must complete their internship by the end of the third year, before the seventh semester begins. In the final year (seventh and eighth semesters), students go for on-the-job training. To be able to do on-the-job training in the final year, students must not have any courses they failed due to absenteeism and must have completed their compulsory internship before advancing to the final year. Therefore, students who come to the final year without failing due to absenteeism and complete their internship during this period can complete their on-the-job training in the final year and graduate. For students to be able to do their internship and on-the-job training, the internship and on-the-job training calendar is published on our Faculty's website every academic year, and students do their internship and on-the-job training according to this calendar. The conditions under which and in which businesses students will do their internship and on-the-job training are explained in the Faculty of Tourism Internship Directive and the Faculty of Tourism On-the-Job Training Directive, and students can do their internship and on-the-job training in businesses that meet the conditions specified in these directives. To graduate from this program, students must successfully complete 240 ECTS credits of theoretical and practical courses by the end of the eighth semester. Students who succeed in all their courses, complete their compulsory internship, and finish their on-the-job training can graduate from the program at the end of the eighth semester. Students graduating from the Tourism Management Department receive a "Tourism Management" bachelor's degree. With this diploma, students can work in public institutions related to tourism, national and international hotel businesses in the private sector, travel agencies, airline companies, restaurants, museums, yacht and marina businesses, cruise ships, entertainment centers, theme parks, and other businesses serving in the tourism sector.
