Interested in travel and love working with people? A career in tourism can open up the world to you. If you’re seeking variety and a creative career with a human touch, you can join one of Canada’s fastest growing industries as a tourism professional.

VIU's Tourism diploma program combines in-class instruction with hands-on paid co-op placements over two years. As a hospitality and tourism studies student, you will learn about sustainability, marketing, risk-management, diversity, and event-planning - providing you with the knowledge and expertise to seamlessly transition into a diverse range of careers available in the tourism industry.

The Tourism Studies Diploma Program
This program is offered as a mandatory Co-operative Education format with four academic semesters and two paid Co-op placements.

The focus of this program is on the provision of leisure experiences for domestic and international visitors. The program assesses the impact of tourism on individuals, communities, and the environment in order to develop best practices for sustainable tourism development. The features of the program include the provision of applied skills and knowledge, direct leadership experience, a co-operative education model (paid employment), and small class sizes.

The program prepares students for career entry; however, students interested in further studies can apply to the Bachelor of Tourism Management degree.

The management of tourism services is a challenging career in this increasingly leisure-oriented society. Dynamic, creative and innovative people are needed to plan, organize and supervise leisure experiences in a variety of diverse settings. The types of positions that graduates may occupy include the following:

Commercial Recreation and Tourism Enterprises, such as private tour companies, leisure-related retail outlets, tourism attractions, health spas, fitness complexes.
Adventure Tourism and Park Management, providing nature-based leisure experiences like camping, wilderness experiences, risk recreation, as well as environmental education and managing the resources required for nature-based leisure.
Tourism Services, including destination resorts and hotels, theme parks, tourist attractions, convention and meeting business, and special events and festivals.
Tour operations, including the packaging, marketing, and operation of tours, tour guiding and interpretation services.
Co-operative Education
Hands-on experience in the tourism industry is gained during two terms of Co-operative Education placements. Under the Co-operative Education format, formal supervised work terms are integrated into the total curriculum on a paid basis. Students will benefit from the experience by:

relating academic study more effectively to the field of practice;
developing a career focus within the tourism industry;
gaining valuable practical experience;
being able to finance a larger portion of their education.
Access to Co-operative Education placements is based on students’ GPA (minimum of 2.33 (“C+”) is required) and their willingness to work as a team member with faculty and Co-operative Education staff to find appropriate placements.

Students in Co-operative Education work terms pay a co-op fee, which is due during the second month of each work term.

Special Expenses
Co-op fees are due during the second month of each work term.

All fees and costs are subject to change without prior notice.