US-Japan institutions team up to train tourism management experts

Japan’s Kyoto University and Cornell University in New York will join forces to launch a new graduate program to train tourism management specialists, the Nikkei Asian Review reports.

The course will be offered at the Japanese university in the spring of 2018, and according to the report, student and faculty exchanges as well as credit transfers are also being mulled as part of the program. It will also include classes on traditional Japanese culture, such as the tea ceremony and flower arrangement.

Kyoto Univ. to train tourism management specialists, partner with Cornell as Japan aims to boost number of visitorshttps://t.co/EyrUUruclG

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To get a head start, Kyoto University will start the classes this fall in cooperation with Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, among other institutions. This is part of a two-year Service Value Creation Program at its Graduate School of Management.

This program, particularly the plans to allow credit transfers, shows Japan’s continuing attempts to lure more international students and tourists to the Asian country. The Japanese government has fixed a target of 40 million tourists to Japan by 2020 – the development of tourism specialists will help improve Japan’s hospitality skills as well as reaching this goal.

Kyoto University is located in the historic cultural capital of Japan. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Founded in 1897, Kyoto University is ranked 37th globally and 15th in Asia, whereas Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe was just recently ranked as among the top five Asian cities in QS’ Best Student Cities 2017. Its Graduate School of Management is also linked to the Japanese government’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) City and Regional Development Bureau.

The partnership with Cornell will allow the university to tap into Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration’s experience in hospitality courses. More than 90 years ago, it was the first school to pioneer the world’s first undergraduate hospitality management degree program.

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