The program offered by  maintains strong ties with the foodservice, lodging, and event planning industries locally, state-wide, and nationally to connect graduates with a wide variety of employment opportunities in the expanding commercial and non-commercial segments of the hospitality management industry. The hospitality industry is the second largest employer in Colorado and the United States. The department oversees internships in the industry and aids in job placement upon graduation.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:

• A conceptual understanding and systems approach to the business of hospitality management.
• The ability to make logical decisions by organizing, analyzing, and interpreting information and formulating rational solutions in a hospitality business environment.
• The knowledge and skills to successfully manage a hospitality operation, including allocating resources such as time, labor, and material inputs to achieve customer satisfaction.
• An understanding of the managerial functions of planning, organizing, directing, staffing, controlling, and budgeting in various hospitality environments.
• The behaviors of effective, ethical leaders by demonstrating the fundamental principles of leadership in a hospitality business environment.

Career prospects

The hospitality industry encompasses careers in restaurants, hotels, resorts, spas, event venues, catering, breweries and wineries, bed and breakfast inns, ski areas, business and industry dining venues, hospitals, correctional facilities, and military facilities in the United States and around the world.

Examples of careers include, but are not limited to: restaurant managers, caterers, event planners, wedding planners, banquet managers, hotel sales and marketing, hotel guest operations, hospitality real estate acquisition, hotel manager, food writing and media, brewery hospitality operations, commercial wine and liquor sales, chef, purchasing agent, conference coordinator, guest service agent, tourist attraction manager, spa operations manager, housekeeping manager, time share sales and marketing