The International Internship as Part of the Hospitality Management Curriculum: Combining Work Experience with International Exposure

Both hospitality management internships and international student exchange programs have been integral parts of many hospitality management curricula for quite some time now, yet a combination of the two, the international internship, is not found extensively. This article looks at the international internship as a means to combine work experience and international exposure, and highlights why it is important to send students abroad. It contends that students who work abroad as interns are better prepared than their non-participating peers to face some of the challenges they will encounter in the increasingly globalized hospitality industry of tomorrow.