Newswise — Florida Atlantic University’s Hospitality & Tourism Management program is among the top 30 in the United States, according to the latest rankings published by The Best Schools Magazine.

Located in the College of Business, the program offers an AACSB-accredited Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a major in hospitality and tourism management, as well as a Master of Business Administration in hospitality and tourism management.

Peter Ricci, Ed.D., director of the program, attributed the program’s success to its unique location, its excellent faculty and its well-established relationships with employers.

“We are incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by every segment of the industry, from cruise lines to casinos and private country clubs to world class resorts,” he said. “We have a faculty with a distinct blend of industry experience and excellent graduate pedigrees, combined with an employer base that has warmly welcomed the alumni and consistently recruited our students.”

Within 50 miles of FAU’s Boca Raton campus, Ricci said there are more than 100 hotels and resorts, five casinos, 90 private country clubs, hundreds of restaurants, car rental agencies, several cruise line headquarters and Online Travel Agency (OTA) regional offices. Of the 30 programs listed in the magazine’s rankings, FAU’s program is the youngest.

FAU’s program prepares students for management positions in multiple segments of the world’s largest service industry. Potential career areas include operations management, sales and marketing, public relations, revenue management, food and beverage, engineering, housekeeping, human resource management, tourism planning and development, hospitality consulting, hospitality law and many others. Students who choose to major or minor in hospitality management receive a broad management-based education following the core business curriculum.

“Employers throughout the area tell us our program’s rigor and focus on a blend of business knowledge with hospitality and tourism skills is what separates it from the rest,” Ricci said.

For a full list of the magazine’s rankings, visit www.thebestschools.org/rankings/best-hospitality-degree-programs/.

For more information FAU’s Hospitality & Tourism Management program, contact Peter Ricci at [email protected] or visit the program’s website at business.fau.edu/hospitality.

- FAU -About Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.