If you are choosing between these two, start with the fact that decides most of it: BS Tourism Management (BSTM) and BS Hospitality Management (BSHM) are prescribed by the same CHED memorandum order, CMO No. 62, series of 2017. They share the same general education block, the same business courses, the same 30-unit Tourism and Hospitality Core, the same practicum requirement, and the same total unit count. The real fork is a single 30-unit professional core plus 15 units of electives.
The second fact worth knowing before you enrol: neither degree leads to a PRC board exam. Not one of the 46 Professional Regulatory Boards under the Professional Regulation Commission covers tourism, hospitality, or hotel and restaurant management. Nobody will ask you for a licence number. That is not a knock on either programme, but it changes how you should think about the four years, because your employability rests on your practicum record, your certifications, and your language skills rather than on a rating released by a board.
One memorandum order, two degrees
CMO 62 s. 2017 is titled "Policies, Standards and Guidelines for Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management (BSTM) and Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management (BSHM)." It took effect for School Year 2018-2019 and it uses the current general education curriculum under CMO No. 20 s. 2013, so it is not one of the older, pre-2016 orders that still describe the 1997 general education programme.
The order names both degrees explicitly in Article IV: Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management (BSTM) and Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management (BSHM). If a school advertises "BS HRM" or "BS Hotel and Restaurant Management," that is a legacy name. Ask the registrar which CMO the curriculum complies with and what will be printed on the diploma.
What the two programmes share
Here is the curriculum structure CMO 62 prescribes. Everything in this block is identical for both degrees:
| Component | Minimum units |
|---|---|
| General Education courses (per CMO No. 20 s. 2013) | 36 |
| National Service Training Program (NSTP) | 6 |
| Physical Education | 8 |
| Business and Management Education Courses (Operations Management, Strategic Management and Total Quality Management) | 6 |
| Tourism and Hospitality Core | 30 |
| Practicum, minimum 600 hours | 6 |
That is 92 units before either degree specialises. The 30-unit Tourism and Hospitality Core is the part students underestimate. It covers Philippine Culture and Tourism Geography, Risk Management as Applied to Safety, Security and Sanitation, Quality Service Management, Legal Aspects in Tourism and Hospitality, Macro and Micro Perspective of Tourism and Hospitality, Professional Development and Applied Ethics, Multicultural Diversity in the Workplace, Tourism and Hospitality Marketing, and Entrepreneurship in Tourism and Hospitality. Ten courses, three units each, taken by both BSTM and BSHM students.
Total prescribed units: 137. CMO 62 labels this the ABM track total. For schools that are eligible to offer a program major or specialisation, the order shows 152 units.
One detail that catches HUMSS, GAS, STEM, and TVL graduates by surprise: CMO 62 tells schools to offer five ABM courses to students who did not come from the ABM strand, worth 3 units each, or 15 units in total. They are Fundamentals of Accounting/Business and Management, Organization and Management, Business Marketing, Business Finance, and Applied Economics. If you are weighing which senior high school track to take, that bridging load is a genuine consideration. Our ABM strand guide and HUMSS strand courses explain what each track actually covers.
Where the two split
Each degree has its own 30-unit professional core, plus 15 units of professional electives that the school selects.
| BS Tourism Management professional core | BS Hospitality Management professional core |
|---|---|
| Global Culture and Tourism Geography | Kitchen Essentials and Basic Food Preparation |
| Sustainable Tourism | Fundamentals in Food Service Operations |
| Tour and Travel Management | Fundamentals in Lodging Operations |
| Transportation Management | Applied Business Tools and Technologies |
| Tourism Policy Planning and Development | Supply Chain Management in the Hospitality Industry |
| Foreign Language 1 and 2 (same language) | Introduction to MICE |
| Research in Tourism | Ergonomics and Facilities Planning for the Hospitality Industry |
| Applied Business Tools and Technologies in Tourism | Foreign Language 1 and 2 (same language) |
| Introduction to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events Management (MICE) | Research in Hospitality |
Read the two columns as descriptions of two different working days.
BSTM is about moving people and designing what they do when they arrive. Airfare rules, billing and settlement, transport, itinerary costing, destination development, tour guiding, MICE. The CMO's programme outcomes for BSTM graduates are to plan, implement and monitor tours and sales activities, conduct tour guiding activities, develop marketing programmes and arrange travel services, plan and evaluate MICE activities, and plan and evaluate tourism sites and attractions.
BSHM is about running the property. The CMO's outcomes for BSHM graduates are to produce food products and services to enterprise standards, apply management skills in food and beverage service and operations, perform the full guest cycle for front office, maintain housekeeping services for guests and facility operations, and implement a risk management programme for a safe workplace.
Both list Foreign Language 1 and 2, and both require that the two courses be in the same language. That is a small line in the order with a large effect on your résumé.
If you want the single-programme detail, we have longer breakdowns of BS Tourism Management and BS Hospitality Management.
The practicum is the part that decides your first job
CMO 62 prescribes practicum worth 6 units with a minimum of 600 hours, for both degrees. The order sets the conversion at "1 practicum unit is equivalent to at least 100 hours per term," allows schools to break the 6 units into two subject offerings, and strongly encourages that the practicum venue be accredited.
Because there is no licensure exam, this is the credential employers actually read. Two questions to ask any school before you enrol, in writing:
- Which establishments do you place students in, and are placements in Metro Manila, in the province, or abroad?
- Is the placement guaranteed, or do students find their own hosts?
Schools answer these very differently, and CMO 62 does not force a single answer.
No board exam: what that actually means
The Professional Regulation Commission publishes the list of Professional Regulatory Boards operating under it. There are 46, covering accountancy, the engineering disciplines, medicine, nursing, medical technology, psychology, guidance and counselling, professional teachers, social workers, and so on. Tourism and hospitality are not among them.
So there is no equivalent of the licensure examinations described in our guide to courses with board exams. What exists instead:
- Competency certifications. CMO 62 instructs schools to consider "the portability of the earned certifications from recognized government agencies (i.e. TESDA) into the HEI curricula" when they write learning outcomes. Many schools embed TESDA assessments in the professional courses. Whether yours does is a school-level choice, so ask.
- Regional recognition. The order cites the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Tourism Professionals, signed in November 2012, which lets ASEAN member states mutually recognise assessment results for tourism professionals through the Common ASEAN Tourism Curriculum. This is competency recognition across borders, not a Philippine licence.
So which one should you take?
A short and honest decision rule.
Take BSHM if you want to work inside a property, you are comfortable with laboratory-heavy terms in kitchens and dining rooms, and you can see yourself in food and beverage, front office, housekeeping, or facilities. The BSHM core is mostly operations, and operations is where the entry-level hiring volume sits.
Take BSTM if you are drawn to itineraries, destinations, transport, ticketing, events, and destination development, and you would rather be planning and selling the trip than running the building. BSTM's core leans on geography, policy, planning, and travel systems.
If you cannot decide, note that the shared 92 units mean the first two years look very similar at most schools. Shifting is usually possible. Ask the registrar for the actual crediting rule before you count on it, since CHED leaves that to the institution.
Two practical filters that matter more than the label: whether the school's kitchens, laboratories and mock hotel rooms are real and in use, and where its practicum partners are. A programme with weak facilities and no placement network is a weak programme under either name.
What CMO 62 does not settle
- Tuition. The order says nothing about fees. Every school sets its own, and lab-heavy hospitality programmes commonly carry additional laboratory and materials charges on top of tuition. Ask for a full fee schedule, not just the per-unit rate.
- Uniform, tool, and grooming costs. Also school-level, and real. Chef's whites, knife kits, and corporate uniforms are recurring costs in BSHM.
- Which electives are offered. CMO 62 lists suggested electives such as Medical and Wellness Tourism, Recreational and Leisure Management, Agri-Tourism, Cruise Tourism, Tour Guiding, and Philippine Gastronomical Tourism, then says outright that schools may offer electives not on the list. The elective menu is one of the clearest differences between two schools offering "the same" degree.
- Whether a specialisation track is available. The 152-unit total applies only to schools eligible to offer a program major or specialisation.
If job market fit is your main worry, our roundup of in-demand courses in the Philippines puts both programmes in context against other fields.
Sources
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 62, series of 2017, Policies, Standards and Guidelines for BS Tourism Management and BS Hospitality Management — Commission on Higher Education. Degree names, curriculum structure and unit counts, Tourism and Hospitality Core, professional cores for each degree, practicum requirement and unit-to-hour conversion, ABM bridging courses, suggested electives, programme outcomes, ASEAN MRA and TESDA references. This PDF is a scanned document; the figures above were read from the pages themselves.
- Professional Regulatory Boards — Professional Regulation Commission. The complete list of the 46 boards operating under the Commission, which is the basis for the statement that no board covers tourism or hospitality.
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 20, series of 2013 — Commission on Higher Education. The general education curriculum that CMO 62 adopts.
