Self-paced Study Online

HOS 4535: Public Relations in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

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Course Description and Objectives Required Textbook Course Requirements
Online Library Resources Honor Code How to Proceed
Contacting Your Instructor Lessons 

Course Description and Objectives

HOS 4535 is an overview of the basic principles of public relations as applied to various sectors of the hospitality industry (lodging, restaurants, attractions, and local and regional organizations that promote constituent members). This course introduces students to concepts and successful practices. Assignments reinforce textbook principles and useful practices.Students will learn to identify promotional opportunities for their entities, write an effective news release, develop a basic fact sheet for attracting media interest, and learn about various media that may be helpful. The final assignment will be the development of a public relations plan incorporating the principles and practices learned, focusing on the student's particular area of interest.

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When you have completed this course, you will be able to:

  • identify the principles of effective public relations
  • apply effective public relations principals to the hospitality industry.

This course home page provides the information you will need to get started, including the course requirements and links to the lessons.

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Required Textbook

Cutlip, Scott M., Center, Allen H., and Broom, Glenn M.  (2005) Effective Public Relations, 9th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

You may purchase the textbook from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center in person, online, or by printing out a book order form and mailing or faxing it in.

Supplemental reading of timely case studies may be assigned.

Please consider purchasing a folder or notebook to keep all completed assignments together and as well as a disk for storing backup copies of your computer files.

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Course Requirements

Written Assignments

Each of the ten lessons has a written assignment. The first eight of these assignments count as 50 percent of the course grade. The last two assignments comprise your final project, which counts as 50 percent of the course grade. As your final project, you will first prepare a complete public relations plan and then set out an evaluation plan to measure the success of your plan. You must receive a passing grade on the final project to receive credit for the course.

Submit your written assignments according to the following instructions. Please proofread your work and keep a copy for your records. Your assignments must be double-spaced and submitted as attached Word files. If you do not have Word, save the file as a rich text format (.rtf) file.

Use the "Submit Your Assignment" button at the end of each Written Assignment to submit your assignment. This button provides you with an e-mail message that is pre-addressed to me and to Student Services at the Friday Center. Attach the file containing your assignment to that e-mail. You may also copy and paste your assignment into the body of the email. If the Submit button does not work with your computer/browser, type both of the following addresses into a regular e-mail message:

heath7@bellsouth.net
stuserv@unc.edu.

All assignments must have the following information in the Subject line of the e-mail: SPC HOS 4535 Lesson # and your name (example: SPC HOS 4535 Lesson 3 Jim Smith). This is essential for the Friday Center to keep track of your assignments.

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Online Resources

Useful Web sites

Some lessons include a section called "Web Links," where I provide links to useful Web sites that are related to the topics we have covered. A note about Web sites: Web sites are constantly updated and sometimes redesigned. If I refer to you an item on a Web site and you cannot find it, please e-mail me. I will update these course pages as I become aware of changes.

UNC library resources

Students enrolled in Self-paced Studies can access online library resources from UNC Libraries at Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. If you encounter difficulties, please report your problem by visiting this Web page for reporting a problem.

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Honor Code

You are bound by the Honor Code: "It shall be the responsibility of every student to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity."

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How to Proceed

Since this course is not held in a classroom, I will probably never meet you in person. Still, I would like to know something about you so that I can associate each e-mail message from you with something more than a screen name. Therefore, your first task is to send me a Personal Information Sheet: Save this Word Document to your hard drive (or copy and paste from this Web page into your word processing program), fill it out, and attach it to an e-mail to me. This also gives us a chance to make sure our lines of communication are working.

When you have reviewed the information on this home page:

  • Click on the Lesson 1 link at the bottom of this page or in the list of Lessons.
  • Read the lesson objectives to get an idea of what you will cover in the lesson.
  • Complete the reading assignment from the textbook.
  • Read the lesson notes.
  • Check out the links to Web sites I have provided in the Web Links section.
  • Complete the written assignment.
  • You will then be ready to submit your assignment.

You will follow this procedure for each lesson in the course.

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Contacting Your Instructor

I hope you enjoy and gain much useful information from this course. Please contact me any time with questions or comments. There is an e-mail link to me at the top of every course page.

Charles Heatherly

Good luck!

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Lessons

Lesson 1 The Practice of Public Relations
What is the practice of public relations? Why is it effective? How does the practice of public relations differ from advertising?

Lesson 2

A Brief History of Public Relations
Historians and archeologists have found evidence that kings and emperors from the earliest Greek, Roman, and medieval civilizations employed operatives to create and spread rumors favorable to the government, much as present politicians do.

Lesson 3

Competitive Public Relations in the Hospitality Industry
What PR principles are unique to the hospitality industry?  What media are most practical and effective?
Lesson 4 Public Relations and the Law
Lesson 5

Reaching Your Audience

Lesson 6 The Message
A succinct message that articulates the solution to the problem is an essential component of a successful public relations effort.
Lesson 7

Handling a Crisis

Lesson 8

Introducing the Public Relations Plan
A comprehensive public relations plan defines the problem, conceives a solution, and articulates an effective message targeted to the most appropriate audience.
Lesson 9 Writing the Public Relations Plan
Develop a public relations plan for your specific area of interest. 
Lesson 10 Evaluating the Public Relations Plan
Online Course Evaluation: Please take a moment to share your comments with us. We want to know if this course met your needs and expectations.

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Lesson 1

Course author: Charles Heatherly

© University of North Carolina
Last modified: May 21, 2008
Send comments and questions to fridaycenter@unc.edu.

Photos of North Carolina in this course courtesy of the NC Dept of Commerce, Division of Tourism, Film, and Sports Development.