Tenby is to be the proposed home of Wales' first Hotel School. The £8 million project, which will offer degrees in hospitality, plans to open its doors in the autumn of 2015.

The Hotel School will, at the same time as training students, offer first rate five-star service to guests. The school is planned to be housed in one of Tenby's top hotels, the Fourcroft, owned by the Osborne family for the last 66 years.

Chris Osborne said: "The Hotel School will be a wonderful asset for the town. Not only will it provide new degree level management graduates with 'hands on' learning, to the hospitality and tourism industry, but also it sets up Tenby as a student town, with all the additional benefits of year-round economic gain. The Hotel School intends to provide guests with a high level of service and, as a training facility, it will enable local operators and their staff to improve their competencies. The project will launch the quality upshift the resort needs to flourish economically."

News of the venture, the brainchild of Tenby Development Trust and Cardiff Metropolitan University, has also been greeted warmly both in the town and in Cardiff and Westminster.

MP Simon Hart has given it his endorsement.

"This is a great idea for Tenby and a winner in every way. I shall be supporting it all the way," he said.

Assembly Member Angela Burns is also supportive.

"This is the economic and skills boost which the tourism industry in West Wales really needs," she said.

Mayor of Tenby, Clr. Trevor Hallett, added: "This project is so exciting. Tenby has been waiting for something like this for a long time. We will do whatever we can to support it."

The Hotel School's degrees are being validated by Cardiff Metropolitan University. Around 90 students will be taught every aspect of hotel management from check-in to check-out over a two-year highly intensive period. The Hotel School will trade and teach all-year-round.

The course, which has been created by Cardiff Metropolitan University, is designed to turn out job-ready graduates, and this has been welcomed both by the profession and by students who are feeling the pinch after the increases in tuition fees.

"We are really excited about designing a special two-year, practical, hands-on, degree for delivery at Tenby Hotel School," said Professor Eleri Jones, associate dean (research) at the university.

And there is further endorsement from the tourism industry.

Andrew Evans, chairman, Wales Committee, British Hospitality Association and proprietor of the award-winning St. Brides Hotel, Saundersfoot, said: "We wish the Hotel School in Tenby every success. The project identifies the need to balance academic study with practical knowledge in a top class working environment. On completion of their studies, the skills learned and qualifications gained can then be applied at management level within the hospitality industry based on work-ready experience rather than pure theory.

"The hospitality Industry in Wales is a vital sector. A recent respected study, carried out by Oxford Economics, estimates that through partnership working and government support, nearly 10,000 jobs will be created in Wales by 2015 and a further 12,000 jobs by 2020 (students themselves have also welcomed the idea).

"We see how getting a degree in two years instead of three will be great for our careers, even if it means we won't be enjoying long vacations anymore," said the NUS president.

The idea for the Hotel School comes from Tenby Development Trust, a social enterprise limited company with not-for-private-profit objectives which was formed by a consortium of local businessmen and women and retired professionals all living in or near the town who believed that the town was in dire need of regeneration.

"Tenby is a beautiful town, there is nothing quite like it in Wales or for that matter in Britain," said TDT board member and local businessman Jeremy Bowen-Rees. "Our coast is regarded as being world class, and yet the town has been suffering for years from lack of investment, both in money and in ideas. This is why we formed.

"At that time we were tired of seeing shops and hotels closing and key sites and areas within the town gradually deteriorating, hotels turned into heaps of rubble, and seemingly little being done. There are thousands of small towns in Britain who wouldpay millions to have the backdrop and architecture that Tenby possesses.

"We wanted to start up a venture in Tenby that would meet certain requirements. First it had to provide year- round employment. The Hotel School will do that. Secondly, it would have to boost the local economy. The Hotel School will do that by attracting new people (tourists, students and academics) and new money into the town. Thirdly, we wanted the school to put Tenby on the culinary and academic map. We believe that through the Hotel School, Tenby has the opportunity to become both a food destination and a university town."