91´ÎÔª

B.S. Parks, Tourism, & Recreation Management

Join one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. and help sustain wild places!

A bachelor’s degree in Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management (PTRM) at UM prepares you for a career to sustain the planet’s most ecologically important environments and tourism destinations. Build a career that makes a differences in the thriving tourism and outdoor industries, public land agencies, and environmental non-profits to steward our wildest landscapes. PTRM is where environmental science, people skills and strategic planning meet. With a curriculum rooted in place-based learning, this program is about so much more than textbooks. It’s an immersive, real-world education that sets you up to make an impact in parks, tourism and recreation management—locally and globally.

The degree equips you to manage recreation areas, design tourism experiences, and work on pressing environmental and social challenges—from managing visitor impacts to supporting sustainable tourism economies. The PTRM degree at the 91´ÎÔª gives you the practical skills, professional network and leadership experience that employers in the outdoor recreation and tourism industry are actively looking for.

Personalized Career-focused Education

Graduates from the UM PTRM program go on to do everything from managing state parks to launching their own tourism businesses. You’ll build a career that makes a difference—whether that’s improving public access to the outdoors, protecting natural resources or developing sustainable tourism programs. Whether you’re working in public lands, nature-based tourism or community recreation, a PTRM degree gives you the flexibility and skills to chart your own path. Students in the PTRM program find meaningful careers in many fields of recreation and tourism management, including community parks and recreation, sustainable tourism and hospitality management, community planning, destination marketing, non-profit administration, environmental education, outfitting and guiding, and public lands management. Students also go on to work for outdoor brands across a growing outdoor industry in the American West.

PTRM faculty are more than professors—they’re connectors. They bring in real-world experience and professional contacts to help you navigate your career path. They’ll also help you find your niche, whether that’s in tourism development, public lands management, sustainable business or environmental advocacy.

Degree Requirements

To earn a degree in Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management at the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, you must complete general degree requirements and may choose one of tracks listed below.

A total of 120 credits are required to graduate from the 91´ÎÔª. 39 credits must be upper-division (300-level or higher). A total of 36 traditional letter-graded semester credits are required in the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, of which a minimum of 20 credits must be taken in an approved major within the college.

PTRM majors are required to fulfill 400 hours of approved work experience and fulfill an internship learning requirement (PTRM 498 — view internship guidelines)

The PTRM Curriculum

With a curriculum rooted in place-based learning, this program is about so much more than textbooks. It’s an immersive, real-world education that sets you up to make an impact in parks, tourism and recreation management—locally and globally.

Our students don’t just study the issues—they solve them, working directly with partners across the outdoor recreation and tourism industries. With a powerful mix of mentorship, experiential learning and career prep, this degree delivers.

A total of 120 credits are required to graduate from the 91´ÎÔª. 39 credits must be upper-division (300-level or higher). A total of 36 traditional letter-graded semester credits are required in the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, of which a minimum of 20 credits must be taken in an approved major within the college.

PTRM majors are required to complete an internship as part of their degree requirements (PTRM 498 — view internship guidelines).

Sign up for Job and Internship Postings

Sign up for our  to receive announcements about PTRM activities, jobs, and more.

Advising

Schedule an appointment with your academic advisor through Navigate. Watch the helpful video where you can see how the system works. Then, click on the Navigate for Students button at the bottom of the page.  If the office hours listed won’t work for you, please email your advisor directly to see what other days/time might work. 

Kylie Crist
Parks, Tourism & Recreation Management Advisor, W.A. Franke College of Forestry & Conservation 
kylie1.crist@umontana.edu

We can help you change a major, add or delete a minor, contact your faculty advisor, find scholarship information, and use GrizPortal to plan your class schedule and register.