Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

Tourism and hospitality are the highest employment generators, contribute significantly to the country’s GDP, but they also demand quality manpower.

With this in mind, IGNOU offers a series of courses at the School of Tourism and Hospitality Services Sectoral Management (SOTHSSM). It launched a modest certificate programme in July 1994, and followed it up with a series of courses: Diploma (in 1995), Bachelor’s (in 1995), Masters (in 2000) and the PhD programme in 2004.

Today, IGNOU has almost 12,000 students enrolled in the tourism programmes, and 12,000 (approx) students in the hospitality programmes. All these programmes were developed in consultation with experts from the tourism industry, industry associations and academicians. All faculty members of the School are members of the Indian Tourism Congress. IGNOU is also an institutional-allied member of the Indian Association of Tour Operators.