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Studies & Degrees in Tourism Commerce

Tourism commerce is the commercial side of tourism: designing, pricing, promoting and selling trips, stays and experiences. UN Tourism defines tourism as a social, cultural and economic phenomenon in which people move to places outside their usual environment for personal or business purposes. Somebody has to turn a destination's hotels, transport, attractions and activities into a product that a traveller can find and book. That is the work of travel agencies, tour operators, booking platforms, hotel sales departments, event organisers and destination marketing organisations.

Students learn how tourism products are built, priced and distributed. Typical subjects are tourism marketing, the sale of travel services, destinations and tourism resources, reservations and fares, customer service, event organisation and the management of travel intermediaries. Spain's official vocational curriculum in this field also includes professional English and a second foreign language, which reflects a sector whose customers often come from abroad.

Qualifications and levels

Tourism commerce is seldom the name of a degree. It is taught inside tourism, hospitality and marketing programmes at several levels.

  • Vocational training. In Spain, the higher vocational qualification (FP de grado superior) Técnico Superior en Agencias de Viajes y Gestión de Eventos lasts 2,000 hours, according to TodoFP, the vocational training portal of the Ministry of Education. Students learn to plan and sell package trips and other travel services and to organise congresses, conventions, fairs and other events. The course includes a training period in a company.
  • Bachelor's degree. Spanish bachelor's degrees (grados) have 240 ECTS credits, at 60 credits per academic year. A degree in tourism covers marketing and sales together with business management, law, geography and languages.
  • Master's degree. Official master's degrees in Spain have 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits. They allow graduates to specialise, for example in tourism marketing, revenue management, online distribution or event management.
  • Short courses. Hospitality schools and business schools also run short and online courses on topics such as digital marketing for tourism or travel agency management. Ask each school what recognition its qualification has.

Where to study

SpainExchange lists 8 active schools for tourism commerce. Five are in Spain, and Italy, the United States and Argentina have one each.

Four of the Spanish schools are in or near Barcelona. CETT Barcelona School of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy offers vocational training, bachelor's degrees and master's programmes; it states that its bachelor's degrees lead to a qualification from the Universitat de Barcelona, and its course list shows the Grado en Turismo taught in Spanish, Catalan and English. At the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Escuela FUAB Formació teaches bachelor's degrees in Tourism, Tourism in English and Hotel Management on the Bellaterra campus, with Erasmus+ exchanges and an international double degree with FH Salzburg. The School of Tourism and Hospitality Management Sant Ignasi and IUSC are also in Barcelona, and the Mediterráneo Culinary Center is in Valencia.

Outside Spain, the list includes the Universidad Nacional de San Luis in Argentina, West Virginia University in the United States and the Swiss School of Management in Rome. Teaching is mainly in the language of the country, and some programmes in Spain are offered in English. Check the language of instruction of each programme before applying.

Careers

Graduates work wherever travel is packaged and sold. TodoFP lists these roles for holders of the Spanish higher vocational qualification: travel agent, travel consultant, head of a travel agency office or department, event organiser, sales promoter of travel and tourism services, and reservations staff. Employers include retail and wholesale travel agencies and agencies that specialise in incoming visitors and events. University graduates also work in hotel sales and revenue teams, online travel companies, airlines, tourist boards and destination marketing.

Official outlook figures differ by role. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects little or no change in the employment of travel agents from 2025 to 2035, and growth of 6 percent for meeting, convention and event planners over the same period. Much selling has moved online, so digital marketing, data analysis and languages are useful additions to a tourism qualification.

Frequently asked questions

Is tourism commerce a degree in its own right?

Rarely. It is normally a specialisation or a group of subjects within a tourism, hospitality or marketing programme, or the focus of a vocational course such as Spain's Técnico Superior en Agencias de Viajes y Gestión de Eventos.

How long does it take to qualify?

In Spain, the higher vocational course lasts 2,000 hours, a bachelor's degree has 240 ECTS credits and an official master's degree has 60 to 120 ECTS credits.

Do I need foreign languages?

They help a great deal. The Spanish vocational curriculum includes professional English and a second foreign language, and some tourism degrees in Spain are taught in English.

What jobs does tourism commerce lead to?

Typical jobs are travel agent, travel consultant, reservations agent, event organiser and sales or marketing roles in travel agencies, tour operators, hotels and destination organisations.