The Tourism Master's program originated from one of the oldest Master's programs at the Institute of Business Administration (IAE) of Reunion Island, which has existed in different forms for 25 years and relates to the tourism sector (formerly the University Institute of Technology – IUP of Tourism, then the Master's in Management of Tourism Activities and more recently the Master's in Tourism Engineering).

The new Master in Tourism is structured around a track in Management of Territorial Organizations and Tourist Destinations (MOTDT), training students in the development of tourism projects in vulnerable environments and in understanding their impact on the territory or destinations.

From this perspective, it will offer students a wide range of tools dealing with:

• contemporary issues faced by private and public organizations operating in the tourism sector: understanding the challenges imposed by the acceleration of geopolitical, digital and environmental transitions; openness to the world;
• strategic and operational management of structures;
• economic levers to understand the behavior of actors in tourism;
• mobilization of tools for processing and enhancing statistical data and information; training in territorial engineering tools related to tourism projects;
• training in the analysis and production of expert knowledge through research training.

With a maximum capacity of 30 people each year, the Master in Tourism will offer a very satisfactory level of comfort and support for students, within an island destination with a dynamic and rapidly developing tourism sector, and also within the IAE of Reunion Island, which has a unique setting and hospitality in Reunion Island, in the heart of the historic district of the capital of the department of Reunion Island.

Students must have demonstrated during their previous studies an ability to understand and utilize tourism engineering tools at a Master's level.

The Master's program in Tourism will draw upon a diverse network of expertise. It will involve a team of research professors and professionals from the tourism industry and engineering sectors. These individuals will be connected to the region where the program is delivered (Réunion Island) or to national and international training networks.

Already established in the tourism industry landscape of the destination Reunion Island, the Master in Tourism will continue to develop its actions with socio-economic organizations in the territory related to tourism and with other national universities.

Finally, the targeted career paths for students and auditors will include positions such as Assistant Unit Manager or Service Manager, or the creation/development of tourism projects for students wishing to lead their own initiatives. In this context, Master's graduates must have demonstrated mastery of the technical knowledge specific to the program, as well as the soft skills required at the Master's level (Bac+5). Master's graduates will also be able to pursue doctoral studies.

Educational goals :

The tourism sector is not limited solely to hospitality activities but also encompasses tourism project engineering and expertise. The educational scope of this Master's program is therefore broader than that of a Bachelor's degree or a hospitality school.

Furthermore, tourism is an activity supported by both private project promoters and public actors (public authorities, destination management bodies, etc.).

Students trained during the master's program will have access to a range of managerial and economic tools providing them with expert knowledge and expertise, and levers to support the creation or development of tourism organization projects, taking into account the contemporary challenges they face (impact on the territory, understanding of environmental, digital, geostrategic transitions, etc.).

More broadly, the training will target six main groups of knowledge:

• knowledge associated with management sciences (hospitality management, role and strategy of actors) and economics (impact of tourism on the economy and the territory) useful for understanding the development of the tourism sector;
• knowledge of how the territory functions and of the territorial mechanisms and systems related to tourism activities and projects:
• knowledge enabling the mobilization of the tools and levers of scientific research in tourism in order to synthesize and produce expert knowledge;
• knowledge that provides students with the ability to gather, process and utilize statistical information
• knowledge of contemporary global issues influencing the growth of tourism (environmental, geopolitical, and digital transitions)
• Knowledge of interpersonal skills and openness to the world

Furthermore, this Master's-level program aims to provide students with a level of training, knowledge, and skills that extends beyond the purely operational application of processes (as seen at the Bachelor's level). Its ambition is to equip students with expertise in these processes, enabling them to create and monitor tourism projects with discernment. To this end, students will be trained to gather, process, and leverage statistical, managerial, and economic information related to the tourism sector. Moreover, through an introduction to research tools, the program aims to develop their capacity to produce structured knowledge, enabling them to support the development of tourism and regional projects and contribute to public policies or sustainable development initiatives.

Assessments will be conducted using various methods to verify mastery of knowledge, its rapid application, the ability to structure thought, the capacity for synthesis and knowledge creation, and the ability to process information. Assessments will be carried out either individually or collectively. To this end, they will aim to demonstrate the ability to manage a project both individually and collectively. They will also be extended to include foreign language skills. Careful consideration will be given to the possibility and methods of using artificial intelligence.

Furthermore, the internships, which will amount to approximately one-third of the program's duration over the two years (8 months out of 24), will allow students to progressively grasp the professional requirements of the targeted levels associated with the creation or development of private or public tourism projects. These internships may be undertaken in private organizations or in a research laboratory.

Training opportunities:

The university's strategy is to train students capable of entering the job market both in Réunion and beyond. Similarly, the University of Réunion aligns its activities with France's strategic positioning in the Indo-Pacific region. Furthermore, Réunion is basing one of its drivers of growth and employment on the development of the tourism industry, a development carefully planned and aligned with the region's specific challenges. Globally, tourism is a sector whose momentum is geared towards attracting 2 billion travelers and leisure consumers from outside the region. Finally, the University of Réunion also aims to strengthen its efforts to enhance skills and expertise in service of the island's socio-economic stakeholders.

The Master's in Tourism is therefore perfectly aligned with the consolidation of this trajectory. By evolving in both content (the core objective of the training prioritizing the territorial engineering of the destination) and form (the mobilization of new tools in line with contemporary challenges), the proposed track, Management of Territorial Organizations and Tourist Destinations (MOTDT), aims to meet this ambition set within the framework of the New Training Offer (NOF) supported by the University of Reunion Island, while taking into account the constraints within which this new proposal is situated.

The training will be structured around a course Management of Territorial Organizations and Tourist Destinations (MOTDT) training in both the development of tourism projects in vulnerable environments and the understanding of their impact on the territory or destinations.

From this perspective, the training will offer students a wide range of tools dealing with:

• contemporary issues faced by private and public organizations operating in the tourism sector: understanding the challenges imposed by the acceleration of geopolitical, digital and environmental transitions; openness to the world;
• strategic and operational management of structures;
• mobilization of tools for processing and enhancing statistical data and information; training in territorial engineering tools related to tourism projects;
• training in the analysis and production of expert knowledge through research training.

In this respect, the training differs from other tourism management training programs in the following ways:

• Produced within a vulnerable island destination, the program takes place in a veritable open-air laboratory for the challenges of tourism in vulnerable environments. The program aims to leverage this strategic location as a key factor in its success, equipping students and participants with the tools and resources necessary to understand the challenges, impacts, and sustainability of tourism projects in vulnerable environments. It is understood that vulnerable environments are present in island territories as well as in continental areas, in mountains as well as on the coast, in cities as well as in rural areas. The Master's program is therefore designed to serve students and participants seeking to enhance their expertise in order to support the strengthening of the resilience of tourism projects and territories.
• The value of pursuing this training at the IAE of Réunion lies in the opportunity to live in a destination where tourism is a key driver of the region and is supported as such by the public authorities responsible for this sector. Issues of governance, impact on the region, and the mobilization of resources to develop and monitor tourism projects are therefore central to the region's dynamics. Career opportunities for graduates of this program are envisioned both on the island and in other national or international regions facing similar challenges.

An additional advantage of the program is its current integration into several national, international, and local research, training, and socio-economic networks. As a result, the Master's program is able to mobilize a teaching team that reflects this diversity of geographical perspectives, with established research professors and instructors from the University of Reunion Island, French and international universities, and socio-professional networks.

Total hours worked: 807 hours

The new Master's program in Tourism offers a track in Management of Territorial Organizations and Tourist Destinations (MOTDT), the main teaching modules of which will be as follows:

• The fundamentals in management and management sciences are considered to complement the teachings and knowledge seen in previous years and can be useful for further study in tourism: management, accounting, services marketing, Human Resources (HR) and organizational management, strategy, territorial and destination marketing, financial analysis of tourism organizations.
• Specialization tools in tourism management and economics: this will involve addressing several economic and management analysis tools to understand the behavior of tourism actors: supply, demand, law and organization of tourism actors, business plan.
• Project design and management tools in tourism.
• Communication tools and opening up to the world: language tools and the integration of the English language into several courses.
• The tools for understanding 3 major contemporary issues: learning to identify the challenges of the digital transformation of organizations in tourism, AI and code; learning to understand the fundamentals surrounding climate change (operational variations being seen in several courses); understanding the socio-economic and geopolitical or geostrategic contexts.
• Specialization tools geared towards the dimension of vulnerable tourism and building the resilience of tourist destinations: Management of vulnerabilities in tourism; creation and development of tourist sites.
• Specialization tools in the design of tourism products: cultural and heritage tourism; sports tourism; territorial innovation and product and service innovation in tourism; transport and tourism.
• Statistical analysis tools, data processing, data visualization: descriptive and inferential statistics courses; quantitative analyses and surveys and qualitative analyses and surveys.
• Tools for the production of scientific knowledge and the management of research projects: files, summary notes and the writing of reports.

The skills acquired during this training are in line with those of the RNCP record

2 internships over the two years covering one third of the training duration (8 months out of 24):

• M1: 3-month internship (mid-year)
• M2: 5 to 6 months of internship.

The internships aim to foster discovery, awareness and in-depth understanding of operations related to tourism engineering: assistant manager activities, engineering and product or strategy design assistance activities, research activities, etc.

Supervised projects will also be implemented within dedicated subjects and aimed at evaluating the capacity for collective mobilization and achieving an "operational" or expertise objective.

Registration fees are set annually by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space and are available on our institution's website: Register at the University of Reunion

• To be aware of the challenges facing the tourism sector.
• To be aware of the challenges facing tourist destinations and regions.
• Demonstrate consistency between the candidate's academic project and their training.
• Having a good level in economics (macroeconomics) – or even demonstrating progress during higher education.
• Having a good level in management (strategic management) – or even demonstrating progress during higher education.
• To have a good level of marketing knowledge.
• Having a good level in statistics and data analysis, or even demonstrating progress during higher education.
• Having a good level in business economics – or even demonstrating progress during higher education.
• Having a good level in analytical accounting – or even demonstrating progress during higher education.
• Having a good level in economics or international trade – or even demonstrating progress during higher education.
• Demonstrate openness to knowledge related to environmental issues.
• Demonstrate analytical and writing skills.
• Demonstrate the ability to use digital coding and Artificial Intelligence tools.
• Being able to read documents and produce visual materials in English – or even demonstrate progress during higher education.
• Demonstrate the ability to have been involved in collective projects – project management.
• Provide evidence of one or more professional experiences in a company operating in the tourism sector or in public institutions.
• To be autonomous, involved and rigorous.
• To promote the diversity of one's experiences and background.

• A cover letter and a research project consistent with the training are expected;
• Particular attention will be paid to the grades from the different years of the candidate's post-baccalaureate studies;
• Le resume (CV) and the certificate of commitment will allow the candidate to highlight the particularities of his career path.

• Management degree
• Economics degree
• Bachelor's Degree in Economic and Social Administration (AES)
• Geography degree (production of maps and analyses of land-use planning)
• Bachelor's degree mentioning a scientific track

Depending on the student's situation, applications for admission to the first year of the Master's program (M1) follow three specific procedures (the national platform Mon Master, Etudes en France, Validation of Acquired Experience). For more information, please consult the university's student services page. Enroll in the first year of a Master's program

Baccalaureate + 3 or equivalent

Open to all members of the public who meet the aforementioned application and admission requirements.

30 seats.

The admission dates for the first year of the Master's degree (M1) are set nationally each year and are available on the platform. My Master

For admission to the second year of the Master's program (M2), the schedule is determined by the institution. It is available on the student services page of the university website: Students re-registering

The current entry presents the following statistics:

• M1: 100% of people passing the final exams of the first year of Master's.
• M2: 90% of people enrolled in the second year of the Master's program and 100% of people defending their final thesis in the second year of the Master's program.

The Master's program prepares students for doctoral studies as well as for immediate professional integration upon graduation. It is structured to promote lifelong learning.

The sectors of activity and types of employment targeted by this training correspond to those listed in the RNCP record

• Accommodation and hotel catering facilities
• Project manager and local development officer in the tourism sector
• Project manager, responsible for promotion and development
• Responsible for the optimization and enhancement of tourism products
• Project manager, business manager in the tourism sector
• Head of promotion, communication and digital, community manager
• Marketing research analyst, socio-economic research analyst
• Strategic Intelligence Manager
• Tourism Engineering Manager
• Junior consultant, auditor
• Designer of tourism products
• Tourism entrepreneur
• Project manager for observation in the tourism sector
• Responsible for tourism labels or progress initiatives
• Responsible Tourism Officer

After 3 to 5 years of professional experience, graduates will be able to access positions such as:

• Tourist office director
• Tourist establishment manager
• Project manager
• Product Manager / Market Manager
• Director of Operations
• Marketing director
• Sales Director
• Head of Socio-Economic Studies