The tourism development concentration and the accompanying minor in the Geography Department  focus on the planning, development and marketing of tourism at regional and community levels, and the development and preservation of cultural and environmental characteristics as tourism resources.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

1. Study the world from a spatial perspective and be able to identify problems resulting from that study.
2. Design and apply appropriate methodologies which investigate some of those problems.
3. Suggest problems and hypothesize solutions to the problems with the use of statistical, methodological, and theoretical tools.
4. Develop the skills necessary to gather relevant information, evaluate it critically, and communicate it effectively.
5. Define the five themes of Geography (place, location, region, movement, human-environment interaction) and apply this knowledge globally (national learning objective).  Students will be able to:

• Locate and analyze the spatial patterns and features of major landforms, bodies of water, climate, and vegetation regions
• Explain interactions between natural and human systems within the earth's environment
• Locate and analyze major features of human activity on the earth, such as urban centers, agricultural regions, political divisions, and patterns of development
• Organize the earth's surface into logical regions at different scales, such as neighborhoods, metropolitan areas, regions of the US and other recognized regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, the Pacific Rim, etc.
• Use the techniques of geography and GIS to cartographically represent spatial patterns of physical and human phenomena
• Spatially analyze numerical data and communicate their meaning and context

Career Potential

• Travel industry planner
• Transportation industry consultant
• Local or state tourism agency staff