*Photo by Andrew Downes
Outside the Shannon College of Hotel Management during its 75th anniversary celebrations, the hands-on nature of the institution was on full display. With up to 200 guests arriving, it was full-time lecturers — including Finian O’Driscoll — out on the tarmac directing traffic.
“It’s a 100% family effort here,” O’Driscoll laughs.
But the day wasn’t just a look back at three-quarters of a century of history.
It also marked the launch of an ambitious new direction for the college: a Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) in Global Luxury and Experience Management.
Preparing to welcome its first cohort in September 2027, the course represents a pivot toward a booming sector of the global economy.
O’Driscoll, a Cork native who has lectured at Shannon College for nearly 25 years, has spent the last year helping to develop the curriculum.
“It’s taken a full 12-month cycle to get here,” O’Driscoll explains. “We need this time now to get our ducks in a row—the proper structure, resources, and personnel—to deliver it properly.”
The decision to build a specialized luxury degree came from tracking where Shannon’s traditional hotel management graduates were actually ending up.
“We have recent graduates who ended up with a degree in hotel management from our institution, but they’re actually working in Formula One,” O’Driscoll notes.
“They’re working on cruise liners, yachts, and even in Gucci and Prada. We realized the experiences and knowledge they gained here easily translated into those industries.”
The new degree takes that organic trend and builds a dedicated academic pathway around it.
While rooted in a traditional business foundation — with heavy focus on finance, accounting, marketing, and management — the specialization tracks the modern premium market, from high-end real estate to global brand management and wellness tourism.
Crucially, the curriculum introduces skills designed for a changing digital landscape.
“A big driver we’ve realized in the last number of years is the influencer economy,” says O’Driscoll.
“We conducted a very interesting focus group with senior cycle secondary school students recently around the idea of a career as a social media influencer.
“Hence, a very strong element of the new programme is digital transformation, artificial intelligence, social media, and analytics. That’s a big differentiator.”
While other third-level institutions offer general business degrees, O’Driscoll believes Shannon’s unique structure gives it a distinct edge in the luxury market.
True to the college’s traditional model, the new programme will feature a heavy, mandatory internship placement component.
“By graduation, our traditional students have nearly two years’ worth of work experience alongside a solid, internationally recognized degree,” he says.
“There’s a huge applied educational and employment competitive advantage. The new programme will mirror that placement structure, allowing students to do internships in situ in Ireland or travel abroad.”
When asked why Shannon is the right fit to pioneer this course, O’Driscoll points to the school’s independence and history.
“Because we’re a smaller college, we’re self-contained. We’re specialists. We know the market very well, and this just fits the profile of our history and our close relationships with industry.”
For O’Driscoll, the evolution of the college mirrors his own long-term relationship with the region. Originally from Bandon in West Cork, he initially moved to the Midwest with a short-term timeline in mind.
“I came down to check out the Midwest for one year — and 24 years later, here I am,” he smiles.
“A wife, a house, a mortgage, a child, a dog, two cats, and a goldfish later. I live in Ennis now, so I’d like to think I’m an honorary Clare man at this stage, though I’m still a proud Cork man.”
During his quarter-century on the faculty teaching economics and quantitative methods, O’Driscoll also became the first internal staff member to earn a doctorate while employed at the college, graduating from the University of Limerick 12 years ago.
He sees the new degree as an opportunity to kickstart fresh research into the international premium experiential markets.
Ultimately, he views the new undergraduate offering as a natural continuation of the vision started in 1951 in the basement of the old Great Southern Hotel.
“Like every workplace, you’ve got to move with the times,” O’Driscoll says. “This new degree programme is a manifestation of the college moving with the trends and the marketplace.”
