Tourism and Sustainability, Master Programme

120 credits

Are you interested in tourism and sustainable development? Do you want to work with creating the tourism of the future? This Master’s programme gives you in-depth knowledge about how to evaluate tourism and plan for future tourism from a sustainability perspective.

As a globally leading business industry, the tourism industry has to take responsibility for the planet’s limitations. This Master’s programme Tourism and Sustainability provides you with an insight into the paramount challenges that face the tourism industry’s development and our world. You will acquire skills that enable you to grapple with important and often contradictory trajectories of tourism and its sustainable future. This can be, for instance, how tourists often seek the pristine, the authentic or the genuine, while in doing so also burden destinations and travel system through unsustainable patterns of practices and carbon dioxide emissions. On a larger scale, it is not only the tourism industry that is under threat but also the world as we know it. Therefore, the most central question we ask ourselves on the Master’s programme in Tourism and Sustainability is – how do we create the tourism industry of the future?

This Master’s programme in Tourism and Sustainability takes on the challenges that climate change and sustainability issues bring about for the tourism and travel industry. As a truly global business with ties all across the globe, tourism links together the most remote places in a gigantic web of relations in environment, politics, geography, economy, the social and the cultural.

During the first year, you are introduced to tourism as an academic subject with ethics, justice, social, environmental and historical perspectives. You will study the course Tourism in the Anthropocene which addresses tourism in a new geological era where the living conditions of humanity challenge the planetary boundaries and, to an ever increasing extent, determine the future of our planet. The courses Business Models for Sustainability, Evaluation and Planning of Tourism Sustainability, Developing Sustainable Destinations, and Ecological Economics, focus on finding solutions and viable paths forward.

During the second year, you will get thorough methodological training and the opportunity to carry out an internship or study elective courses, before the final semester’s degree project (30 credits).

Select semester Autumn 2025

Kalmar, Full-time, Campus

APPLY

Master’s level Syllabus Full-time, Campus English Kalmar 01 Sep, 2025 - 06 Jun, 2027 January 15 LNU-F2706

General entry requirement for studies at second cycle and specific entry requirements:

- Bachelor’s degree in tourism studies or in business administration or in another social science main field of study or equivalent

or

- Bachelor’s degree in a natural science main field with at least 30 credits in social science, business administration or equivalent

and

- English 6 or equivalent.

Individual Assessment

54,900 SEK 219,600 SEK

School of Business and Economics

Career

In the large tourism sector there is a growing need for qualified expertise in evaluating, analyzing and planning for tourism and tourism-related activities in a sustainability perspective. The program provides these skills and prepares students for advanced jobs in the private as well as public sector.

For example, you can work as a destination developer, destination manager, sustainability manager or sustainable business developer.

Degree

Master of Science (120 credits) with specialisation in Sustainability

Main field of study: Tourism Studies

We are accredited

The School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, AACSB.

International opportunities

The language of tuition is English. In this way, you will become prepared not only for a career in Sweden, but also for a career in international contexts. The programme admits students from all over the world, which means that you will get international and multicultural experience throughout the programme. Further opportunity for internationalisation is provided through the opportunity to study a semester abroad at one of our partner universities around the world.

Template for the Statement of Purpose intended for individual assessment to be included in the programme application.

Statement of purpose

I get to combine my interests in travelling, tourism and sustainability

Madeleine is originally from Germany and was drawn towards living in Sweden. Tourism and Sustainability was the perfect combination of her interest and the perfect reason to extend her stay in Sweden. Something she enjoys about the programme is the way it looks at tourism from many different perspectives. The future of tourism is one of the aspects she found especially interesting.

Read the full interview with Madeleine

Why did you choose this programme?
I came to Sweden to live and work on a permaculture farm a little outside of Kalmar for two weeks. I ended up to stay there for 10 months. After this time, I still did not want to leave Sweden, however I realized that I wanted to go back to a city and start studying again. So, I started looking at Master Programs in Kalmar. That´s how I found the Tourism and Sustainability programme. I chose this programme because it seemed perfect to combine my interests in travelling, tourism and in a sustainable lifestyle.

What do you like about the programme?
I really like in the program that we look at many different areas when it comes to tourism. We started out to talk a lot about climate change and the future of the world as well as the future of tourism. I must say that made us all pretty depressed. But over time with more and more courses we found hope and saw that studying tourism and sustainability is really important. Studying tourism in connection with sustainability is quite new so there is still a lot to discover. That makes it so exciting.

What does your future plans look like?
I don´t plan to much in my life. I realized that plans always change and new doors open every day. My dream is to educate and inspire people to live a more sustainable and respectful life and work in an area where I can change something.

What is the student life like in Kalmar?
I am sure my student life looks a lot different from the others. While I am studying I work in a vegan cafe in the centre of Kalmar. Whenever I am free I spend time in nature, go climbing or do yoga.

Beatrice wants to work with sustainable tourism

"It was the first time I have seen winter in my life. I mean, it was a bit cold in the beginning, but then I got used to it and it was like 'yeah, this is really nice'". Beatrice moved from Kenya to study tourism and she likes the sustainablity perspective in the programme. After graduation she wants to bring her new knowledge to Kenya.

Shiva got admitted to a PhD-programme

Shiva is originally from Iran and decided to take a big step in her international career by coming to the northern countries a few year ago. She started her Master’s degree at Linnaeus University on the Tourism and Sustainability programme and very recently she moved to Norway to start a PhD programme at the University of Stavanger.

Read the full interview with Shiva

You recently started a PhD programme, please tell us more about that?
I was thinking about doing a PhD when I started my master in Linnaeus University, so during those two years I was keeping my focus on improving my CV and making satisfactory progress in the studies to be able to apply for PhD positions. It is all about planning, in my point of view. I feel it’s important to know what you want to achieve after doing a master study, whether it’s staying in academics or working in other careers. Right now I’m in the beginning of the road of a PhD, and for now my schedule is packed with PhD-courses and work with my own research project.

What brought you to study Tourism and Sustainability?
I was interested to do my master in an international environment with other classmates from all over the world, plus I found the combination of the tourism and sustainability very interesting. During our courses we learned about climate change, and future of tourism and the planet earth, something I really liked. This course gave me insight of sustainability that is my focus on my PhD study as well.

What did you learn at the programme that you feel is useful for your future career?
As I said earlier the combination of tourism studies and sustainability made this program interesting in my point of view! Now everyone is talking about sustainable lifestyles, responsible travels and so on! I feel so glad that I had the chance to study this informative and interesting program which I know will benefit me in my future career in academics.

Kalmar – the student city by the sea

In Kalmar centre, right next to the sea, you will find the university’s facilities that were inaugurated in August 2021. In Kalmar, everything is nearby, and you can take your bicycle to the university regardless of where you live in the city.

New students have housing guarantee. This means that you are entitled to student accommodation within two months. This is one of the reasons for Kalmar being appointed Student City of the Year 2023 by the Swedish National Union of Students. Kalmar has also received the award because the city offers students an excellent living environment. What is more, the city works actively to create opportunities for students to stay in Kalmar to work when they have completed their studies.

Kalmar municipality has about 70 000 inhabitants. Kalmar has a strong trade and industry with many companies that are on the forefront in green energy, e-commerce, and eHealth, which means there is good opportunity to establish contacts for your future work life.

Kalmar has a cultural history centre and has been named Sweden’s Summer City several times. No wonder, with all the hours of sun, beaches and concerts. What is more, the island of Öland is just one bridge away.

Learn more about our student cities