HFT3700 – Tourism Management is a 3-credit upper-division course on tourism as an industry and as a system: what moves travelers, who supplies what they consume, how destinations are marketed and managed, and what tourism does — economically, socially, and environmentally — to the places that host it.
Tourism is not simply a larger version of hotel or restaurant management. It is a destination-level subject, in which the product is a place rather than a property, and in which no single organization controls the experience: a visitor's trip involves airlines, accommodation, attractions, restaurants, transport, and public infrastructure, coordinated loosely if at all. Much of the management work therefore involves partnerships, public-sector bodies, and collective marketing rather than direct operational control.
Content covers the tourism system — origin, destination, transit, and the components that connect them; the history and growth of tourism; tourist motivation and behavior — push and pull factors, typologies, decision making, and satisfaction; tourism demand — measurement, seasonality, and forecasting; the supply side — accommodation, attractions, transportation, intermediaries, and destination organizations; destination management organizations — convention and visitors bureaus, tourist development councils, and their funding; destination marketing — branding, positioning, segmentation, and digital distribution; economic impact — expenditure, multipliers, employment, leakage, and taxation; social and cultural impacts — host-guest relations, authenticity, commodification, and carrying capacity; environmental impacts and sustainable tourism; ecotourism and nature-based tourism; heritage and cultural tourism; cruise tourism; event and sport tourism; tourism policy and planning — public sector roles and regulation; crisis and risk management — disasters, pandemics, and destination recovery; and trends — overtourism, technology, and changing traveler expectations.
Offered at Florida institutions with upper-division hospitality and tourism programs.
Florida is arguably the best place in the United States to study this subject. The state hosts well over a hundred million visitors annually, is the largest theme park destination in the world, operates the busiest cruise ports in the world at PortMiami and Port Canaveral, and funds a substantial public tourism apparatus through county bed taxes and a state marketing corporation. Every concept in the course has a local example within driving distance.
Worth stating plainly. Tourism is among the largest sectors of Florida's economy, supports a very large share of employment, and is a principal reason the state has no personal income tax — sales tax paid substantially by visitors carries revenue that residents would otherwise fund. That gives tourism policy a political weight here it lacks almost anywhere else in the country.
Concrete features worth knowing: Orlando is among the most-visited destinations in the United States and the largest theme park market in the world; PortMiami and Port Canaveral are the world's busiest cruise ports; Miami Beach, the Keys, and the Gulf beaches anchor distinct leisure markets; and the state's convention business, particularly in Orlando, is among the largest anywhere. A student here can research a real destination with real data rather than a case study.
The most concrete and least understood mechanism in Florida tourism management. Counties levy a Tourist Development Tax — commonly called the bed tax — on short-term lodging under § 125.0104, F.S., and the revenue is restricted by statute to defined tourism-related purposes: destination marketing, tourism promotion, convention centers, certain sports facilities, museums, and beach renourishment among them.
Two reasons this matters. First, it explains the industry's institutional structure: a county Tourist Development Council and its destination marketing organization exist because this revenue exists, and their budgets rise and fall with lodging demand — which means a downturn cuts marketing exactly when marketing is most needed. Second, permitted uses are politically contested; whether bed tax money may fund a stadium, a convention center expansion, or beach projects is a recurring Florida argument, and the Legislature has amended the statute over time. A student who understands the funding mechanism can read those debates properly. Verify the current statute rather than relying on a textbook.
The crisis unit is not theoretical here. Florida destinations plan for hurricane season every year, and the management problem has a well-defined shape: pre-event preparation and evacuation coordination; during, visitor safety and communication; and after, the recovery problem that surprises students — national coverage of a storm suppresses bookings across the entire state even where no damage occurred, so recovery marketing must communicate that a destination is open while remaining truthful and not appearing callous.
The COVID-19 period gave the field a second, larger case, and the pandemic literature is now standard in this course. The transferable lessons are the same: destinations dependent on a single market or segment are fragile, communication credibility is an asset built before a crisis, and recovery is faster for destinations with diversified demand.
The analytical skill most worth taking from the course. Tourism impact studies are frequently produced by parties with an interest in a large number, and the technique has known failure modes:
A professional who can ask "what multiplier, what leakage assumption, and compared to what?" is considerably more useful — and considerably more credible in a public meeting — than one who repeats the headline. This is also directly applicable to the stadium, convention center, and event subsidy debates that recur in Florida politics.
Content that has moved from the margins to the center of the field. Destinations from Venice to Barcelona to Amsterdam have imposed visitor limits, cruise restrictions, and short-term rental regulation in response to resident pressure — and Florida has its own versions: short-term rental regulation conflicts between municipalities and the state, housing affordability in the Keys and Miami Beach where tourism-sector workers cannot afford to live where they work, beach access disputes, and environmental pressure on springs, reefs, and manatee habitat.
The professional framing is that residents are stakeholders, not obstacles: destinations that degrade quality of life for residents eventually degrade the visitor experience too, and community opposition is a real constraint on development. Students entering destination management should expect to spend real time on this rather than treating it as a sustainability afterthought.
A precision point worth holding. Ecotourism properly means nature-based travel that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of local people, and includes interpretation and education. Nature-based tourism that does none of those is simply outdoor recreation with marketing attached, and the label is applied loosely enough that greenwashing is a recognized problem.
Florida has genuine examples — Everglades interpretation, springs and manatee programs under management restrictions, state park systems, birding trails — and also plenty of operations using the word for positioning. A student who can apply the criteria rather than the label is doing the analytical work the course is teaching, and certification schemes and their limitations are worth knowing for the same reason.
HFT3700 is an upper-division course, typically within a B.S. or B.A.S. in Hospitality Management or Tourism, following the lower-division sequence (HFT1000 introduction, HFT1410 front office, HFT2500 hospitality and tourism marketing, HFT2750C the event industry). Related upper-division numbers cover destination marketing, resort management, and hospitality finance. SCNS equivalency applies to the same number at the same level, never across numbers; students transferring from an A.S. should confirm the 2+2 articulation, which Florida has established in this field, and should note that a 2000-level tourism course does not satisfy a 3000-level requirement.
Generated September 1, 2026 · Updated September 1, 2026