Combo-degree: The new flavour

It never occurred to me that Masab Tank is a distorted version of Maa-Saheba Tank (Maa-Saheba was the title of Hayat Bakshi Begum, wife of Sultan Muhammad Qutub Shah VI), until Abhishek a BBA student at NITHM (National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Gachibowli) pointed it out. Abhishek who is doing his BBA (Tourism & Hospitality) says he’s rediscovering his city though the course which combines tourism and hospitality.

In India, tourism and hospitality industries are witnessing a period of exponential growth. ‘Conde Nast Traveller’ world’s leading travel and tourism journal ranked India as the numero uno travel destination in the world from 2007-2012. India witnessed a double-digit growth in foreign tourist travels; likewise foreign exchange too has been robust. Tourism today contributes to 5.9% of GDP providing employment to about 41.8 million people. As per World Travel and Tourism Council, the Tourism industry in India is likely to generate $ 121.4 of economic activity by 2015 and Hospitality sector has the potential to earn $ 23 billion in foreign exchange by the end of 2015.

Kalyan Kumar, Chief Administrative Officer of the institute says, “Multiple qualifications ensure that students fit into any stream. For example, an MBA marketing graduate knows only about his field i.e marketing, but an NITHM MBA student would have had a thorough exposure to tourism, hospitality (hotel/resorts/wellness centres), food and beverage sectors, conference, convention and event management, travels, etc and would adapt to any stream he’s put into . Further the internship programmes, hand-on curriculum, prominent guest lecturers and a plethora of activities make the students industry ready.

Coming to the campus life and the activities, students say they are always engaged with surfeit of co-curricular activities like organising summer camps, field trips, fetes, competitions and in-house events that they are always on toes. MBA student Kirti Akula, who recently organised a Summer Talent Quest, says, “I had the opportunity to explore the practical side of the curriculum after joining MBA here. I’d love to take up a career in event management after this”.

This four year full-time course is an integrated programme in collaboration with the Jawaharlal Technological University. Consisting of eight semesters with 10 months of industrial exposure training this course exposes students especially to the commercial side of the Tourism & Hospitality industry including tour planning and operations.