Travelling the world with a master's in global hospitality business

For Maude, who speaks French, English, Spanish, some Malai and Hindi, it was the unrivalled international experience at EHL Hospitality Business School that won her heart and led her to apply for the Master of Science in Global Hospitality Business.   

Designed for students who want a career managing high-class service-centred businesses anywhere in the world, the programme gives students the opportunity to spend 16 months at three top business schools in Europe, Asia and North America.  

Not only do students spend a semester in each location, but they also explore three further cities in each country for additional field trips. 

She said: “Hospitality is all about welcoming people into an experience and understanding what they want and need to create a positive memory. Being able to visit different countries and cities to understand how people live, and what they expect in different cultures.  

“As an industry, hospitality is very multicultural as many people travel abroad to work in restaurants, hotels and resorts. So, being able to study across three very diverse continents will give me the skills to understand cultural differences and varying industry expectations that shape how people work together. 

“This will all make me a better global leader.”  

From Europe to Asia to North America... 

Like Maude, students on the global hospitality business master’s spend the first semester at EHL Campus Lausanne in Switzerland, which ranks first in the QS World University Rankings by Subject: Hospitality and Leisure Management.  

Nearing the end of her first term, Maude is preparing to embark on the next stage of the journey for a semester at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which takes 10th place in the same rankings. By summer, she’ll be heading to the University of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College in the US, which ranks 30th, for the final semester.  

Already, she’s travelled to Lisbon in Portugal for a field trip exploring boutique hotels and speaking with directors and general managers about the industry. She’s also visited Paris and Berlin for similar trips. On arrival in Hong Kong, she’s excited to find out where her next field trips will take her and said that previous students have visited cities including Bangkok and Macau. 

“We have the option of travelling to each place a little early to discover the city before we meet the industry experts. It gives us a feel for the different cultures and tourism in each place,” she said.  

Add some culturally immersed field trips 

“The field trips also give us the opportunity to ask questions to the professionals currently working in their fields. So, as well as asking our lecturers and professors about the things we’re interested in or struggling to understand, we can ask the directors and general managers for their perspectives. 

“It gives us a much richer understanding of life in hospitality management, alongside the course material we learn in class.”  

As well as gaining the foundational knowledge of business strategy across three continents, including finance, marketing and operations, students benefit from a packed schedule of cultural immersion and business experience, seminars with world-leading experts, a practical business project and professional certifications.  

It’s Maude’s ambition to work with international clients around the world as a hotel or restaurant director. She said: “I love being able to create an experience for somebody. In hospitality, you can manage a beautiful hotel with elegant rooms and a comfortable bed, but if the human touch is not there and the guests don’t receive great customer service, the experience won’t stand out.  

...and you get a world-ready graduate  

She's hopeful that her top-rated global experience will help her to stand out in the graduate job market and set her on the right path to become a great leader in hospitality excellence.  

“One of the core values EHL has provided to us is having empathy and understanding for the people you work with. Even as a director or a general manager, you have to understand what it’s like to do the work of the people you manage, to stay humble and to understand cultural differences,” Maude said. “ 

Without that human empathy and connection, you can’t create a system of excellence and a standout experience for your clients or guests.”  

While hopping between continents to study might feel nerve-wracking for some, Maude is eager to get to Hong Kong for her second semester and experience everything she can.  

“It’s a completely different culture and I can’t wait to see how people live, to try the food, to experience what hospitality means in Asia and to meet lots of new people. 

“I’ll travel out with the other students on the programme who I’ve become really close with as we’ve been navigating life at EHL together and living on Campus. So, when we move to our next destinations, I know we’ll always have each other there for support as well as the school’s support, if we need it.”