Degree
Master of Science
Semester fee
71
Euro
Start of the program
Winter semester
Standard length of the program
4
Semester
Place of study
Eichstätt,
Ingolstadt
Part-time studies possible
No
Language of instruction
German & English
The four-semester program leading to a Master of Science degree enables our students to understand regional developments in tourism and their complexity by drawing on theories and models from social sciences, economics and management research. They will be able to recognize underlying challenges for a sustainable development. The program will provide a sound scientific basis on which our students will be able to get active in their future careers. They will be able to precisely analyze practical problem situations in order to be able to develop ideas for creating forward-looking and responsible strategies for a sustainable regional development based on tourism. When developing practical solutions, the degree program particularly focuses on the diverse requirements and conditions of different stakeholders in the field.
The program in detail
Contents
The study program comprises four semesters. A characteristic of this master's degree is the theoretical holistic view of tourism practice, sustainable regional development and tourism planning.
The aim is to understand regional development paths in tourism in their complexity with the help of social, economic and management science theories and models and to grasp the underlying challenges in the field of tension between sustainability and tourism. With a view to their future careers, students are thus enabled to define practical problems more precisely and, on this basis, to develop flexible ideas in order to be able to design forward-looking and responsible strategies for tourism-based sustainable regional development. In the development of practice-oriented solutions, special attention is paid to the different expectations and involvement of various stakeholders.
The interdisciplinary study program consists of three core areas:
- the acquisition of basic planning skills,
- the acquisition of basic knowledge and its specialization in economics, business administration and human/economic geography,
- their application in the field of tourism development and spatial as well as regional development.
Rankings and assessments
KU students and alumni have voted for their University to be Germany's most popular university in the 2024 ranking of the online portal StudyCheck. This is the third time in a row, as KU was also voted the most popular university in 2021 and 2022. The ranking was based on over 78,000 evaluations for more than 500 higher education institutions and universities. 97 percent of students questioned for the ranking would recommend studying at the KU to others.
"There is no better praise for a university than almost 100 percent of students and alumni agreeing: I can only recommend studying at the KU! That is why we are very pleased with the ranking’s outcome, because it expresses the high level of satisfaction of our students," says KU President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien.
Studying abroad
Students are encouraged to spend their second semester at an international partner institution. We see this as an integral part of a comprehensive, holistic education with an international orientation, which also helps students in developing their cultural skills.
This Master’s degree program is designed internationally and cooperates with universities from Northern, Eastern and Central Europe. Our Master’s students have the possibility to participate in an ERASMUS exchange program to study abroad at one of our international partner institutions that offer equivalent modules. All modules at our partner universities are offered in English.
Double Degree
Since the 2013/2014 winter semester, we are proud to be able to offer our students the possibility to complete a double degree either in collaboration with Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica (Slovakia) or Oulu University (Finland). In the context of the exchange program, students have the possibility to obtain two academic degrees. In this program, students spend two semesters at their respective “home universities” (60 ECTS), one semester at the “partner university” (30 ECTS) and write their Master’s thesis in English in the fourth semester (30 ECTS) in close cooperation with both locations. In particular when drafting the Master’s thesis, students benefit from comprehensive support and guidance both from KU professors and lecturers from the partner universities. Both in Banska Bystrica and Oulu, five students per institution will be given the possibility to pursue this extraordinary course of study. At the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, five students per year group for each partner university will get the chance to take advantage of this opportunity. Successful graduates of the double degree program will obtain the Master of Science degree in Tourism and Sustainable Regional Development— Management and Geography (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) and the title“"inžinier“ (Ing.) (engineer) [1] / “Master study in Economics of Tourism Businesses” (Banska Bystrica) or Master of Science “Geography— Specialisation on Tourism Geographies” (Oulu).
[1] This degree is awarded by Slovak and Czech universities on completion of a graduate program in technical as well as economics and business disciplines and is equivalent to Master of Science. By bearing the title „inžinier“(Ing.) (engineer)“ the professional regulations in the Federal Republic of Germany have to receive attention and are legally binding (due to the so called “Engineering Acts” in German Federal Lands („Ingenieurgesetze der Länder“)).
Partner universities
Joint research activities with collaborating universities complement the international orientation of the Master’s degree program. Our students independently choose the partner university at which they would like to study on the basis of their subject-specific and geographical interests (in doing so they are supported and guided by the KU). Our partner universities guarantee a place for every KU student of the program.
Semester abroad in Prague and Georgia
„A semester abroad at the VSO in Prague provides insights into new research approaches and positions in the tourism industry. The city is a welcome contrast to Eichstätt and offers numerous opportunities to experience tourist trade and destination management in practice.“
„A semester abroad at the VSO in Prague provides insights into new research approaches and positions in the tourism industry. The city is a welcome contrast to Eichstätt and offers numerous opportunities to experience tourist trade and destination management in practice.“
„No other degree program makes it so easy to go abroad. That's why I took the opportunity to study in Prague for a semester. From very small course groups at the university to field trips to museums and nature to cosy pub evenings, the time in the Czech capital was full of interesting impressions. Where else can you…
„No other degree program makes it so easy to go abroad. That's why I took the opportunity to study in Prague for a semester. From very small course groups at the university to field trips to museums and nature to cosy pub evenings, the time in the Czech capital was full of interesting impressions. Where else can you gather so many professional, cultural and personal experiences, if not during a semester abroad?“
„Mountains, adventure, wine, underground parties and the dearest people on earth. These are the things that immediately come to my mind about Georgia. An absolute insider tip for the semester abroad. The life between pulsating city, relaxed university atmosphere and a quick hike in the Caucasus Mountains was incredibly…
„Mountains, adventure, wine, underground parties and the dearest people on earth. These are the things that immediately come to my mind about Georgia. An absolute insider tip for the semester abroad. The life between pulsating city, relaxed university atmosphere and a quick hike in the Caucasus Mountains was incredibly fun and created memories for life. The fact that Georgia lies right on the border between Europe and Asia made the cultural experience even more exciting.“
Practical connection
Combining science, teaching and practice
The degree program is characterized by its practical orientation and its collaboration with companies, universities and research institutions and is very well networked in the region, throughout Germany and internationally. The teaching formats, such as the Planning and Consulting Project or the Large Project Study, offer a particular benefit in this context. These types of projects take place in close exchange with practical partners and enable an exciting transfer of knowledge.
Presentations & international activity
Guest lectures are an important opportunity to enter into a multidisciplinary dialog with professional experts. Within the framework of the international visiting professors’ program, we welcome the most renowned professors on a regular basis.
Research seminars & field trips
The degree program includes various study trips and excursions. Costs incurred are announced by the lecturers beforehand and must be borne by the students themselves.
Research projects
By participating in research projects, you will be given the opportunity to carry out research for yourself during your studies. We do not limit ourselves to simply imparting knowledge, but also create new knowledge through research.
Collaboration
The degree program is characterized by its practical orientation and its collaboration with companies, universities and research institutions and its extensive network in the region, throughout Europe and internationally. Here, you get an insight into selected examples.
Career possibilities and professional fields
Career prospects
Career in tourism and regional development
The sectors and professional fields in which former students of the program are employed reflect the degree program’s interdisciplinary character. Graduates effectively network their multidisciplinary knowledge and work in different areas of tourism and regional and location development after having completed their studies.
Destination management
Numerous indicators influence the attractiveness of a vacation region, which means that tourist destinations must also adapt to new market conditions in order to remain a popular destination. The specialized knowledge acquired in the context of the degree program gives you an overview and understanding of all necessary factors for the tourist-related success of a destination.
Regional and urban development
Factors such as migration, globalization and Europeanization have a major impact on regions and entail new challenges for urban and regional development. the study program provides in-depth knowledge in the field of sustainable urban and regional development and thus creates the necessary conditions for understanding the current needs of the regions.
Consulting
With the acquired methodical knowledge and analytical approaches, graduates of the degree program are ideally equipped starting a career in tourism consultancy. Through their acquired expertise, they are able to contribute to holistic concepts and solutions in the field of tourism.
Academic career
The degree program provides all the necessary foundations for further research work and ensures that graduates have all the prerequisites for successful doctoral studies in one of the subject areas covered.
Alumni testimonials
“The Master’s degree program at the KU is unique because it offers a semester abroad and an international field trip, which are not required components in every Master’s degree program, in addition to imparting substantiated theoretical foundations. Personally, I learned many things during the field trip in Georgia that…
“The Master’s degree program at the KU is unique because it offers a semester abroad and an international field trip, which are not required components in every Master’s degree program, in addition to imparting substantiated theoretical foundations. Personally, I learned many things during the field trip in Georgia that you cannot learn at university – and I also made great friends. Overall, the entire study program has given me a broader horizon of knowledge in tourism and geography, which I would like to pursue in my professional future.”
“The network that you can fall back on here is of course enormous and I still benefit from that today. What you get here, especially compared to large universities, is really outstanding. Seen through the professional lens, tourism is the industry with the absolute coolest, most open and nicest people. I can only…
“The network that you can fall back on here is of course enormous and I still benefit from that today. What you get here, especially compared to large universities, is really outstanding. Seen through the professional lens, tourism is the industry with the absolute coolest, most open and nicest people. I can only recommend anyone to join this profession.”
Where is tourism heading?
There is no question that the tourism industry has suffered most during the pandemic and still will for a long time. Suffering in the sense of a collapse of tourist markers caused by global immobility, accompanied by pandemic-related restrictions on business activity and even accommodation bans. The Covid-19 pandemic…
There is no question that the tourism industry has suffered most during the pandemic and still will for a long time. Suffering in the sense of a collapse of tourist markers caused by global immobility, accompanied by pandemic-related restrictions on business activity and even accommodation bans. The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly unveiled the vulnerability of value creation processes in tourism, and the awareness of the industry’s vulnerability to crises is just increasing massively. But tourism is also the “elixir of life” for broad social levels, born out of the need for recreation and relaxation due to the massive changes in working conditions brought about by industrial developments. Over the decades, not only has industrial society evolved into a more service-oriented society, but tourism has also become more of an expression of social pleasure in participation, interest, obligation and responsibility, but also in demands such as freedom, personal fulfillment and, increasingly, sustainability. The term "meaningful places" has long entered daily language use to describe those tourism destinations that not only offer guests rest and relaxation, but also enable them to connect with central questions of life, such as encounter or relationship. We talk of resonance. Every form of traveling, visiting and experiencing, but also the conscious "not wanting to experience" can trigger questions, stimulate our thoughts and lead to the big questions of the self and its relationship to the whole. But ‘meaning’ in this context can also be perceived as "purposefulness without purpose", as the autonomy of the aesthetic, but also as the beautiful in the special: the external purpose of "usefulness" is absent, and the inner experience becomes the fundamental pillar of a “meaningful place”.
Now, it will be necessary to strongly focus on those issues that will have a significant impact on tourism in the future due to the long crisis, and thus change the business models or the cooperation, performance and revenue systems accordingly. Below are some key issues that have a significant impact on the development of tourism that will also find their way into the curricula of study programs:
- Sustainability governance,
- Management of resources,
- Service & experience design,
- Mobility management,
- Resilience,
- Risk & crisis management,
- Safe travel ecosystems, and
- Cultural leadership.
In university education, leadership means not exclusively focusing on imparting specialized knowledge, but rather, through the high level of methodological competence, conceiving and initiating further developments in cooperation between lecturers and students, and thus being part of them. In this context, anticipation and transformation mean being able to imagine what future developments will look like or to derive them using appropriate tools in order to identify paths, strategies and implementation mechanisms for change. Leadership means inspiration and motivation. This is a central challenge in high-quality educational formats, and this is equally a challenge in the future design of the phenomenon we now call tourism.
In a university Master's program in tourism, leadership therefore means more than ever replacing the "economization" of tourism education of past years with a more multi- and interdisciplinary education. The Master's program in "Tourism and Sustainable Regional Development – Management and Geography" has taken this idea into account for more than 10 years by interlinking the teaching contents of the fields of geography and economics and by also offering the program in close cooperation between two faculties. Tourism is an applied science that cannot exist without a practical connection. Work in small groups, the semester abroad with the possibility of obtaining a second Master's degree (double degree), the field trips that currently last several weeks, the internship and the interdisciplinary development are the program’s special features that give students the ability to work and take over responsibility in a variety of different areas in the public sector, e.g. in the field of urban and regional development, or in the privately organized tourism industry. In the future, the fields of psychology, sociology, cultural studies, computer science and selected natural sciences (climate research) will become more prevalent in the field of tourism as well.
What students say about the program
“This Master’s program combines my previous training and the KU is one of the most popular universities in Germany. The interdisciplinary character of the program allows you to immerse yourself in tourism from different perspectives. Field trips consolidate your theoretical knowledge and numerous seminars and project…
“This Master’s program combines my previous training and the KU is one of the most popular universities in Germany. The interdisciplinary character of the program allows you to immerse yourself in tourism from different perspectives. Field trips consolidate your theoretical knowledge and numerous seminars and project work allow you to deepen insights into different topic areas and fields of knowledge.”
„The small number of students makes it easy to grow together as a group quickly and there is always someone there to listen. This sense of community is further strengthened by various projects and stays abroad.“
„The small number of students makes it easy to grow together as a group quickly and there is always someone there to listen. This sense of community is further strengthened by various projects and stays abroad.“
„Small courses and personal support and supervision by professors and lecturers allow studying in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Project work in the context of the studies is always very application-oriented with a practical focus.“
„Small courses and personal support and supervision by professors and lecturers allow studying in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Project work in the context of the studies is always very application-oriented with a practical focus.“
„The uniqueness of the degree program as well as the combination of various topics of tourism and regional development convinced me and appealed to me right from the outset. Other convincing factors are the international orientation of the program and its high practical relevance.“
„The uniqueness of the degree program as well as the combination of various topics of tourism and regional development convinced me and appealed to me right from the outset. Other convincing factors are the international orientation of the program and its high practical relevance.“
The KU
Campus
Short distances on campus at the KU save time and avoid stress. The KU is a campus University with modern facilities. The buildings on campus are located close to the Eichstätt old town. Although the University and its campus has grown, it is still characterized by short distances: In Eichstätt, everything can be reached within ten minutes’ walking distance. On campus, green spaces such as the Hofgarten are the perfect places to relax. The garden of the Kapuzinerkloster is also used by different student initiatives for their projects. The canteen is located at the heart of the Eichstätt campus and has a sun deck and cafeteria that leave nothing to be desired.
What sets the KU apart
Studying at the KU is more than just acquiring specialist knowledge. We broaden our horizons together and take on responsibility in and beyond the individual degree programs. The KU has a particular focus on topics such as personal development, sustainability, social skills and social commitment.
It offers its students the possibility to study and work in a welcoming atmosphere and benefit from outstanding support and comprehensive service offers, a well-stocked library, a broad range of sports and leisure activities and a large global network of approx. 300 partner universities. Our team at the International Office helps you to plan your semester abroad and the KU Career Service provides comprehensive advice and support for embarking on your professional career.
Do I have to be Catholic in order to study at the KU? Do I have to deal with Catholic contents during my studies?
No, the KU is open to students of all faiths and beliefs.
At the KU, just as at all state universities, there is freedom of research and teaching. This means that our degree programs focus on the subjects for which you have enrolled – free from external influences.
As a student at our University, you will notice what our understanding of being a Catholic University means for us in one thing in particular: The University’s focus is on the individual person. The talents and potential of all those who teach, study, work and carry out research at the KU form our most important foundation – regardless of their religion or beliefs, nationality, ethical, cultural or social background, disabilities, gender, sexual orientation or age.
This is why we promote your best possible academic education through personal support and an ideal staff-to-student ratio. At the same time, the KU is more than just a place for earning your degree: We attach particular importance to imparting social skills and advancing our students’ sense and value orientation in addition to providing them with a high level of academic and methodical qualification.
Our aspiration for our University is to build bridges between science and society and to make knowledge available for society as well as to integrate impulses from outside the University into our research and teaching practice. We aim to make a valuable contribution to social coexistence, to the free democratic basic order and to preserving creation.
Isn’t Eichstätt quite small for a university town?
With a population of around 15,000, it is probably the smallest university town in Europe. For our students, this means living and learning in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Whether it is on the way to a lecture in the morning, at the canteen for lunch or in the pub in the evening, you will often come across people you know. It is easy to meet people in Eichstätt! By the way, the KU’s “living room” is the Theke, a bar run by students for students. Here, people meet for parties, jam sessions, karaoke evenings or a cozy round of table football.
A small town also means short distances: The library, the swimming pool, the cinema or the supermarket – everything can be reached in a few minutes on foot or by bike. The town is located right in the heart of the Altmühltal natural park – a real paradise for climbers, canoeists, hikers and cyclists just around the corner.
Should you still reach a point when you feel too cooped in, you can breathe big city air easily near Eichstätt. Ingolstadt with its 135,000 inhabitants is only a few kilometers away and offers a variety of shopping and nightlife options.
The location
![[Translate to Englisch:] Biergarten](/fileadmin/22/Studiengaenge/Bilder_fuer_Studiengangwebseiten/Biergarten.jpg)
Eichstätt and the surrounding Altmühltal natural park are not only a popular destination for culture enthusiasts and nature lovers, but also for cyclists, climbers, canoeists and fossil collectors. Located between Munich and Nuremberg, the city impresses with its Baroque setting and southern flair combined with modern and prizewinning architecture as well as a broad variety of cultural offerings and leisure activities.
The Baroque park at the heart of the campus and the nearby banks of the Altmühltal river are the KU’s “green living room”. Another big advantage: all University facilities are just a short walk away from each other.
Advisory Service
Some offers and study conditions are different for international students – our International Office is happy to provide help and support. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our team. We are happy to accompany you on your way to the KU and hope that we can welcome you in person soon!
David
Guevara
Coordinator Welcome Services and International Campus
Building
Domplatz 8
|
Room: DP8-203 | Campus Eichstätt
Application
Requirements
Bachelor
Selection procedure: see examination regulations
Selection procedure: see examination regulations
Language requirements
DSH 2
Application period winter
Apr 01
-
Jun 15
Admission restriction
No
Selection procedure
Yes
The application process for international applicants is now completely digital. You can register online in our application portal and carry out and submit your application. After you have carried out the application and uploaded your documents, you do not need to send your documents to us again by post. You do have to submit certified true copies only if you are admitted at the time of enrollment.
Depending on the course of study, you may be asked for information on internships, professional experience, etc. Please upload the relevant documents in the upload area for all the information you provide, even if these are not mandatory fields!
Before you start the application process, please read the additional information on this page, in particular the information on the respective (German) language requirements and university entrance qualifications.