April 24, 2024
The University of Florida’s Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management (THEM) industry partnerships offer students outstanding opportunities to connect with industry experts and develop meaningful, applicable research for the tourism industry. One of the department’s greatest strengths is the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute.
EFTI was funded and established in 2010 as the first endowed tourism institute at the University of Florida. The institute strives to connect with talented industry leaders in the state of Florida and beyond, advance cutting-edge research, create meaningful engagement opportunities, and support higher education. The institute is named for famed travel journalist Eric Friedheim, who also published Travel Agent Magazine.
The institute's top priorities are:
- Strategizing recruitment: Recruiting and retaining undergraduate students, graduate students, talented faculty/staff members, and active board members through meaningful interactions and enrichment opportunities.
- Continuing philanthropy and expanding philanthropic connections: Because of faithful donors’ generosity, a variety of scholarships and endowments have been and will be established for generations to come.
- Expanding partnership through establishing trust between industries and scholars: Engage in active listening integrated with useful research skills and effective communications in order to strengthen deeper and broader partnerships.
- Creating meaningful community engagement: Reach out to key communities to provide usable support while students are gaining career and professional opportunities as our main goal.
- Advancing meaningful and practical research: All concurrent research projects will be practically related to timely issues (e.g., surviving and striving through COVID-19, hurricanes, and intervention events), planning (e.g., revenue management, economic impacts, and forecasting), and the needs of future trends and talents (e.g., Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science).
EFTI is one of the many ways the Department of Tourism, Hospitality, and Event Management is positioned to help students succeed through real-world experience and connect with industry experts. Explore the many elements of the EFTI at https://uftourism.org/.
About the online Master of Science in Tourism and Hospitality Management
The 100% online, instructor-led Master of Science in Tourism and Hospitality Management is designed for busy, working professionals or those just getting started in their careers. This program allows you to earn your degree and apply what you learn in the classroom to your current and future work environments. Using real data from top industry experts, graduate students develop resource-based views and comprehensive strategies for managing and leading tourism and hospitality organizations. Students will also obtain a holistic perspective of environmental concerns that impact visitation to sensitive areas, including how to build sustainable initiatives into a business model and how to use unique faculty-developed tools to better respond to these issues. Ignite your tourism and hospitality career with our streamlined admissions process.