MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — Middle Tennessee State University administrators hope the school's newest degree will help supply workers for the mid-state's fast-growing tourism industry.
On Thursday, MTSU officials announced the university's newest degree: Tourism and Hospitality Management.
"What we do here is nurture future generations of managers and supervisors in the tourism and hospitality industry," MTSU assistant professor Nicky Wu said. Wu helped create the new degree track, and said she noticed that the mid-state lagged behind when it came to training tourism talent.
"[Hotels] may get talents from Memphis, they may get people from UT but not from here in the Middle Tennessee area," she said. She said she hopes the new MTSU program can change that.
The degree has three emphasis areas that students can choose from: travel and tourism management, hotel and hospitality management and event planning. Wu said regardless of their emphasis students will learn some of all three areas.
About 20 students have already transferred into the new program, according to Wu. She added that she has countless employers already excited about the possible graduates.
"I've been getting phone calls from every single hotel asking me, 'hey we need people, we need students,'" Wu said.
Wu added that tourism and hospitality has become one of the fastest-growing industries in the Nashville area.
