Welcome to the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM).
The School of Hospitality and Tourism was founded in 2013 with a focus responding to the ever-increasing demand for trained personnel and researchers for the hospitality and tourism sector in Kenya and beyond.
The tourism industry continues to be a leading sector in Kenya contributing significantly to the Kenya’s GDP, employment and foreign exchange. This significance has seen the sector prioritized in the country’s broad economic development agenda. The Vision 2030 for instance, identifies tourism as a lead economic sector under the economic pillar. The sector is further identified as one of the eight (8) priority sectors to drive economic growth under the Vision’s Third Medium Term Plan (MTP III) that mainstreams programmes and projects aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Africa’s Agenda 2063 and prioritizes implementation of the national development initiatives. Further, Kenya’s National Implementation Strategy for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) prioritizes tourism as one of the sectors to contribute to regional trade footprints and identifies strategies to spur competitiveness and increased intra-African tourism into the country.
At the global scene, while the tourism industry has maintained its status as a key contributor to global GDP, trends in the tourist marketplace continue to influence the global tourism industry. Such include globalization, digitalization, sustainability, cases of pandemics, emergence of new destinations, and the ICT that has risen to be a key driver and disruptor of the global travel and tourism industry. In addition, climate change and public concerns about the industry’s impact on the environment has resulted in consumer demand for more sustainable travel options.
In response to the above trends, the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management has identified key training needs and is committed to developing globally competitive human resource that will be able to meet the manpower demands of the tourism and hospitality industry, policy level, research and academia. This focus has seen the School invest in market-driven academic programmess, qualified human resource, facilities, and partnerships both locally and internationally. As a result, Murang’a University has fast grown to a University of Choice for students seeking to pursue their careers in hospitality and tourism industry, and to an academic market leader in training, research, consultancy, and innovation in hospitality and tourism within Kenya and beyond.
I take this opportunity to welcome students to Murang’a Univeristy of Technology’s SHTM and further welcome corporates, policy makers, and development organizations seeking academic partners in the development of the tourism industry to consider Murang’a Univeristy of Technology.
Thank you.
Prof. Ray Mutinda
DEAN, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management