Starting in fall 2025, University of the Pacific is launching a new major that will enable students to earn a multi-faceted business degree that primes them for a career in the hotel and hospitality industries.

Offered through the Eberhardt School of Business, the major aims to bridge a gap Dean Lewis Gale identified following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The hotel and hospitality industries were devastated from COVID,” Gale said. “Many individuals with a lot of experience and institutional knowledge at the resorts and hotels left the industry. They needed to choose other career options resulting in a significant amount of turnover.”

As a result, there is now high demand in the job market. According to the U.S. Department of Labor the growth rates in hotel lodging positions and hospitality-oriented organizations are predicted to more than double the rate of the overall U.S. employment growth. “It's a huge opportunity for us,” Gale said.

Students in the program will have a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience through internships at the new Jie Du Inn at Pacific, a boutique hotel expected to open on the Stockton Campus in 2026.

The on-campus experience provides a tremendous advantage for students to gain real-world experience without facing the obstacles that can come with an internship, such as transportation or relocation.

“When we learned about the original concept for the Pacific Inn, we realized we could add a major specifically tied to having an internship for credit where the students would have opportunities to work in the hotel and develop experiences for the people who stay in the hotel.”

“Very few other schools in California have hotel and hospitality management embedded into a business degree and also have an on-campus hotel, so from that research we knew there was capacity for this program to meet the needs of where the industry is going,” Gale said.

Because the new major is built into an existing business degree, students graduating with the major avoid being pigeonholed, said Gale. “The core business classes are still the same. What's new are specific core courses in hotel management, international event management, and restaurant management. Students in the program will know not only how to create incredible guest experiences but also know how to read profit and loss statements, understand analytics, and organizational behavior.”

Associate Professor Pete Schroeder, who served on the committee to establish the major, said he’s looking forward to new partnerships the program brings in and working with Pacific alumni, many of whom have extensive ties in the wine industry.

“I'm excited to see kind of the jobs people get. We've had a lot of alumni coming out of the woodwork and excited about the opportunities. I'm hopeful that it booms, because I do think it's a program where graduated students can find cool jobs working for big brands or even working all over the world. I'm excited for the possibilities.”