You’ll develop organisational and business skills that relate particularly to cultural aspects of tourism. Throughout your studies, you’ll develop an understanding of the issues and concepts involved in the industry, as well as marketing practice and heritage considerations.
You’ll learn broad skills such as formulating policy and planning for the future, as well as developing your abilities in research, time management and presentation methods.
Upon completion of the course, you’ll be able to devise sustainable policies and strategies by understanding the key challenges and issues facing the heritage and cultural tourism sector. You will also be equipped with creative, innovative and practical solutions to enhance your employability within the industry.
With a number of tourism ventures and operations in and near the city, you’ll have plenty of options for part-time work, internships and employment after graduation.
How will my degree reflect sustainability and sustainable development?
The Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) – established under the UN Global Compact – places a clear onus on Higher Education to ‘transform management education and develop the responsible decision-makers of tomorrow to advance sustainable development’. The Business School is a PRME signatory, and we seek to influence professional practice and policy nationally and internationally, helping to drive key societal, economic and environmental impacts.
Our mission is ‘to empower communities to apply business knowledge for positive societal impact’ and we work constantly to embed practical actions into our curriculum, to promote sustainability and relate these to the key ideas of sustainability, as reflected in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes now reflect one or more of the SDG, and our research is targeted to solve real world problems, mapped against the criteria used in the Times Higher Education’s Impact Ranking.
The most recent annual league table for Sustainability - compiled by People & Planet, the UK’s largest student campaigning network - again places Edinburgh Napier in a top 3 position among Scotland’s 19 universities. This reflects their assessment of our performance across a range of environmental and ethical considerations, which include carbon reduction and management, and education.
What is distinct about equality, diversity and inclusion?
Edinburgh Napier University is enriched by the diversity of perspectives, cultures and backgrounds brought by all within our global community. We are committed to a positive environment where diversity and inclusiveness is celebrated and everyone is treated fairly regardless of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability, age, ethnic origin, religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status or whether pregnant or on maternity leave. We commit ourselves to providing a learning, working and social environment that is free from discrimination, prejudice, intimidation, stigmatisation and all forms of harassment and bullying.
The Business School's vision: 'To be the Business School for empowerment, enterprise and employability for all'.
Our mission statement: 'Empowering our communities to apply business knowledge for positive societal impact'.
Lead Academics
Dr Ellis Urquhart is a Lecturer in Tourism & Airline Management and the MSc Programme Leader for the Tourism Suite within the Business School at Edinburgh Napier University, UK. He specialises in visitor attraction management, co-creative experience design and technological mediation in the heritage sector and the wider attraction environment. Ellis teaches tourism management at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels at Edinburgh Napier University in addition to overseas programmes delivered in Switzerland, Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong. He currently reviews for a range of tourism publications and currently sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Tourism Futures.
Professor Anna Leask is Professor of Tourism Management and a key member of the Tourism and Languages Subject Group in the Business School. Her teaching and research interests combine and lie principally in the areas of visitor attraction management, heritage tourism and destination management. She has co-edited several textbooks including Managing Visitor Attractions (2008; 2022) and Managing World Heritage Sites (2006) and contributed to several key tourism textbooks. She is on the Editorial Board for four international tourism journals and has been actively involved in the Scientific Committees for many international conferences in Europe and USA. She has published in key academic journals such as Tourism Management, International Journal of Tourism Research and Current Issues in Tourism, in addition to publishing a range of case studies, articles and practitioner papers
Dr Dina Anastasiadou is the leading authority in EU tourism policy and has published extensively on the impact of regional trading organisations on international tourism development. She has undertaken research projects on cross border collaboration in tourism in Southern Africa, tourism marketing technologies and community engagement in events. Her main research interests lay in tourism policy, governance, stakeholder engagement and organisational structures in tourism. She is currently involved in comparative research in destination management organisational structures in Scotland and Denmark.
Dr Louise Todd is an Associate Professor in the Tourism & Languages Subject Group and the Public Engagement Lead for the Business School. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Royal Society of Arts and Royal Anthropological Institute. Louise’s research interests lie in tourism, cultural events, art, experience design, visual culture and marketing communications. She has published her research in journal articles, book chapters and presented at international conferences.
Dr Ross Tinsley is a Tourism Lecturer and Programme Leader Edinburgh Napier University. He is currently interested in the identity and evolution of counter culture festivals and the role of spirituality within such events. He has also researched and published on small tourism businesses and destination development within developing country contexts. His PhD investigated networking between small tourism businesses and its contribution to destination development. His current work centres on the evolution of the Beltane Fire Festival, of which he was a past performer.