Tourism Management

Hello. I am Prof. Dr. Semra AKTAŞ POLAT, the Department Chair of Tourism Management Department at the Faculty of Tourism, Istanbul Medeniyet University. I started my academic career as a research assistant at Sakarya University in 2019 and have been continuing at Istanbul Medeniyet University's Faculty of Tourism since 2017. I have also been serving as the head of the Tourism Management Department for approximately 2 years. Our tourism management department, which is the only department within a state university in Istanbul dedicated to tourism, continues its educational activities with a young and dynamic academic staff. Tourism inherently brings together and merges people from different nations, countries, religions, and cultures. In this context, tourism makes significant contributions to various areas such as learning, rejuvenation, relaxation, contributing to national and international social peace, and preserving abstract and concrete cultural heritage for future generations. Accordingly, our department adopts an educational approach that focuses not only on the economic aspects of tourism and providing human resources to tourism businesses but also emphasizes all elements affected by tourism and those that impact tourism. The Tourism Management Department, established in 2016, is currently operational at the Tuzla and Orhanlı campuses. In addition to general courses in economics, business, foreign languages, and communication, we offer professional courses related to the three pillars of tourism: travel establishments, accommodation establishments, and food and beverage establishments. Moreover, taking into account the participation of our stakeholders from the public sector, private sector, professional associations, and our students, we strive to keep our curriculum up-to-date while considering the effective and efficient use of our resources. Our computer laboratory is actively involved in conducting operational courses included in our department's curriculum. According to the curriculum, our students are obliged to complete a 75-day internship. They have the opportunity to do internships at various tourism establishments in Istanbul, such as accommodation establishments, travel establishments, food and beverage establishments, and national and international airlines. We have established ERASMUS agreements with many countries and prestigious universities such as Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Hungary. The process for students who wish to benefit from ERASMUS education is actively ongoing in our department.