MBA Study Tours as Tourism Products

Utilizing interviews conducted with 16 administrators of MBA programs from four countries, this paper investigates the current trend of internationalization of Western and Asian MBA programs and postulates why graduate business schools are increasingly offering international study tours. Also examined are how relevant stakeholders perceive these trips and how internal and external pressures are affecting business schools as they evolve to remain solvent. This paper contemplates the MBA study tour through a tourism lens, which leads one to see these hands-on out of the classroom learning opportunities as a niche segment of educational travel, belonging to the broader category of youth tourism. Three significant findings emerged. First, primary motivations for the internationalization of MBA curriculum, faculty and student bodies. Second, how students, faculty, and administrators view study trips. Third, specific travel preferences that will assist the tourism industry in attracting these tours in the future. Also, how graduate business schools are coping with the dramatic increase in market pressures. Key factors include the immense influx of international students into MBA programs, the diversification of faculty, hyper-competition among MBA programs, growing popularity of substitute programs, the increased power of yearly global MBA rankings, student desire for more international focused programs and the commodification of MBA programs.