Tourists, drawn to its hiking, boating and camping opportunities, spent $171 million in Lake Havasu City in 2014, stimulating $41.4 million in the resort community's economy. So, it makes sense that the city will be a home for ASU's new tourism and recreation management degree.
ASU Lake Havasu City campus director Raymond Van der Riet said the program makes use of its location by design.
"We try to add programs that take advantage of the local strengths of our city," he said. "Tourism and recreation are very important to Lake Havasu. We have the perfect environment. It's almost like a learning laboratory."
The new degree will be offered for the first time this fall, and Van der Riet said the town's tourism industry offers internship and job shadowing opportunities for those in the program.
Kathleen Andereck, director of the School of Community Resources and Development, has worked with Van der Riet for the past year to develop the new degree. She oversees the current tourism program, which offers four undergraduate degrees at ASU's downtown Phoenix campus.
She said the new degree is a more integrated and flexible degree that targets working professionals who want to transition to a managerial job. In addition, she said the program addresses the need for more education in the field and the workforce shortage in Lake Havasu.
The major's coursework focuses on recreation tourism as well as applied courses in marketing, sustainable tourism and tourism management.
Students in the program will have a choice of completing either an internship or service learning project at places such as state parks, land management agencies, retirement communities and the Chamber of Commerce's tourism office, Andereck said.
"(Tourism) is much more broad than just hotels," she said. "Students sometimes focus too narrowly on what they think the field means, so they don't look at the whole range of ... career opportunities in recreation and tourism."
Tourism students seek careers in fields like in hotel management, special event management and recreation programming, she said.
Tristan Jandrew, a junior majoring in communication and tourism at the Lake Havasu campus, was raised in Lake Havasu and became interested in the industry after working at a hotel's front desk.
"I like the aspect of essentially taking people into your pseudo-home, treating them well and giving them their money's worth of their experience," he said. "With this degree being offered, I hope we will see an improvement in the skills of hospitality and tourism workers and our town's economy."
In its inaugural semester, faculty associates will teach both in-person and online classes in the degree.
The introductory tourism and recreation course will be taught by Terence Concannon, president and CEO of the Lake Havasu City Convention and Visitors Bureau.
He said the tourism scene at Lake Havasu has increased during the past several years, which has manifested in a higher number of customers in bars and restaurants. He hopes that because Lake Havasu has so many opportunities in hospitality, tourism and recreation, more young people will stay to live there.
"We have so many outdoor recreation options, and ASU adds legitimacy to the community," Concannon said. "It's just a fantastic interface between a great education and an outdoor lifestyle."
Reach the reporter at afalero1@asu.edu or follow @afalero18 on Twitter.
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