The Tourism Degree is based in ESTIG – IPBeja’s Technology and Management School. It is a well-established degree, as it has been running for 20 years now. During this period, several curricular changes were made to adapt it to broader social, economic and also cultural/academic changes, and to the evolution of Portuguese tourism. In 2006/2007 the degree was adapted to the Bologna process. Its core subject area is ‘Tourism and Leisure’. It has a total of 180 credits and it is organised in five semesters and two trimesters. The Degree’s curriculum provides a fairly broad education, although its profile is oriented to the area of tourist products and activities. Moreover, several course units focus on the setting up of a business. The Tourism Degree also puts a premium on practical and applied knowledge: this goal is pursued in several course units, such as Professional Practice and Events and Protocol, and through the organisation of multiple field/study trips, participation in and organisation of seminars, conferences and other events, hosted either by IPBeja or by external public or private-sector organisations, contact with tourism-related IT software and ‘enterprise-classes’ – classes with the participation of a wide range of entrepreneurs or public sector’s senior staff.

The internship/work placement is another important component of ESTIG’s Tourism Degree and it has the main goal of establishing an effective relationship with public bodies and private sector businesses related to the tourism sector, thus enabling students to apply and further the knowledge and skills they acquired throughout the degree.

In 2013, the Tourism Degree was fully accredited for a 6-year period by A3ES, the National Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education.