Which Programme Does the IGNOU BTSP-115 Project Belong To, and How Is It Written?

Course identity

What exactly is the IGNOU BTSP-115 project?

BTSP-115 is a project course, not a theory paper. There is no three-hour written examination for it. Instead, the student produces one independent study on a tourism or travel subject, supervised by an approved guide, and that report plus the viva-voce becomes the entire result for the course.

The parent programme is the Bachelor of Tourism and Travel Management. IGNOU offers it in two forms: BFTTM in Open and Distance Learning mode, and BFTTMOL in online mode. The official BFTTM programme page on ignou.ac.in lists the eligibility as 12th pass, the medium as English and Hindi, a minimum duration of 36 months and a maximum of 72 months, with a full programme fee of Rs 5,500 for national students. BFTTMOL learners study in English only and are asked to select English-medium courses.

One point deserves plain speaking. IGNOU has not yet released a stand-alone printed project guide for BTSP-115 on eGyanKosh the way it did for BTSP-001 and BTSP-002 under the BATS programme. Until that booklet appears, BFTTM students should treat the SOTHSM project pattern plus the general university project rules as their working brief, and confirm anything programme-specific with their Regional Centre in writing.

Code clarity

How is BTSP-115 different from BTSP-001, BTMP-146 and BTMP-142?

The four codes belong to four different degrees. They share a school and a subject area, which is exactly why students download the wrong guide and write to the wrong specification. The distinction is worth two minutes of reading before any work starts.

A practical test settles it. Open the registration or re-registration record on the Samarth student portal and read the course code printed against the project component. If it says BTSP-115, the programme is BFTTM or BFTTMOL. If it says BTSP-001 or BTSP-002, the programme is BATS and a different SOTHSM project guide applies. Students already working on the wider programme can read the broader IGNOU BFTTM project guide with topics and format alongside this code-specific page, and BAVTM learners should instead follow the BTMP-142 project guidance.

Credits and workload

How many credits does BTSP-115 carry?

The Common Prospectus places BTSP-115 in the Semester 6 skill-enhancement and project column, the same 4-credit slot occupied by the SEC-4 component. The parallel BAFVTM programme spells this out even more clearly, listing its Semester 6 project BTMP-146 as a 4-credit course in the identical position.

Four credits translates to roughly 120 notional study hours in IGNOU’s credit system. That is the realistic yardstick for scope: a focused study of one destination, one segment or one enterprise, not a survey of Indian tourism as a whole. It also fixes the project evaluation fee. IGNOU’s official project and practical examination form portal sets the project evaluation fee at Rs 300 per course for work up to 4 credits and Rs 500 per course above 4 credits, payable at the time of filling the Term-End Examination form.

Because credit weight drives both fee and scope, students should confirm the figure printed against BTSP-115 on their own programme guide or registration record before paying, rather than assuming a number from a forum post.

Before you write

What goes into the BTSP-115 synopsis?

No project work should begin before the synopsis is approved. IGNOU treats the synopsis as a contract: it fixes the title, the objectives and the method, and the final report is judged against it. A report that drifts away from an approved synopsis invites an awkward viva.

Across IGNOU schools the proposal file carries three documents together, and an incomplete file is rejected outright rather than returned for correction:

1. Proforma for Approval of Project Proposal, filled completely and signed with dates by both the student and the guide. Enrolment number, programme code, study centre and regional centre must all match university records.
2. Bio-data of the guide, signed in original and dated. Where the guide is an approved IGNOU academic counsellor, the study centre and the courses counselled should be stated.
3. The synopsis itself, normally 10 to 15 pages, setting out title, background, problem statement, three to five measurable objectives, scope, methodology, chapter plan, expected outcome and a short bibliography.

On supervisor eligibility, SOTHSM has historically accepted two routes for its tourism project courses: an academic route, open to any teacher in the related field or discipline from a recognised college or university, and a professional route, open to a graduate with at least five years of managerial experience in a tourism or hospitality enterprise. BFTTM students should have the Regional Centre confirm that the chosen guide qualifies before the proforma is signed. A worked walkthrough of the paperwork is available in the IGNOU synopsis and project proposal guide.

Report structure

How should the BTSP-115 project report be organised?

An undergraduate tourism project of this weight usually runs to about 8,000 to 10,000 words, or roughly 50 to 70 typed pages including annexures. The sequence below follows the standard IGNOU project report order and reads cleanly to an evaluator who has thirty other files to mark.

Formatting follows the university’s standard practice: A4 paper, a readable serif or sans body face at 12 point, 1.5 line spacing, one-inch margins, justified paragraphs and page numbers at the bottom centre. Tables and figures should be numbered and captioned, and every one of them should be referred to somewhere in the running text. The full layout specification is set out in the IGNOU project report format guide.

Topic selection

Which BTSP-115 topics fit the BFTTM syllabus?

The strongest BTSP-115 topics grow out of the courses the student has already studied. Evaluators recognise the link immediately, and the literature review almost writes itself because the study material is already in hand. Match the topic to a course, then narrow it to one place and one measurable question.

Before locking a title, apply one filter that BK Sahni, who has guided 5,00,000 students till date, uses on every tourism proposal: name the exact respondents or records that will supply the data, and name the town or facility where they are. If either answer is vague at the synopsis stage, the topic will collapse during fieldwork. A title such as “A Study of Tourist Satisfaction at [named facility], [named city]” survives that test. “Tourism in India” does not.

Submission and evaluation

How is the BTSP-115 project submitted and marked?

IGNOU accepts final project reports through its dedicated online project portal, and the process is the same for BTSP-115 as for other project courses:

1. Fill the Term-End Examination form for the chosen June or December session and pay the project evaluation fee along with it. Without this, the upload has no session to attach to.
2. Scan or compile the complete report, including certificate, declaration and approval copy, into one single PDF file. Multiple files and email submissions are not accepted.
3. Log in at the university’s online project submission portal with the enrolment number and programme code, read the session instructions, upload the PDF and submit.
4. Save the on-screen confirmation and the acknowledgement email. These are the only proof of a timely upload.
5. Attend the viva-voce when the Regional Centre calls, prepared to defend objectives, method, sample and findings. Preparation prompts are collected in the IGNOU project viva questions guide.

Deadlines are fixed session by session and are shifted more often than students expect. For the June 2026 cycle, the Student Evaluation Division extended the final project, dissertation and internship submission date to 15 June 2026 for ODL learners. That pattern of extension is common but never guaranteed, so the working date should always be read off the current notification on ignou.ac.in rather than a previous session’s page. Step-by-step help is available in the IGNOU project submission guide.

Avoidable errors

What gets a BTSP-115 project sent back?

• Starting fieldwork before approval. A report built on an unapproved synopsis has no accepted objectives to be marked against.
• Incomplete proposal file. A missing signed guide bio-data or an unsigned proforma is treated as grounds for rejection, not correction.
• Wrong code on the cover. Writing BTSP-001 or BTMP-146 on a BFTTM cover page routes the file to the wrong evaluation stream.
• Titles too wide to research. National-scale themes cannot be supported by a single-student sample within 120 study hours.
• Copied or unedited generated text. Originality is checked, and a declaration of authenticity has been signed.
• Multiple PDFs or an email submission. The portal expects one file; anything else may simply not register.
• No annexures. A survey-based study without its questionnaire and raw data looks unverifiable.

Frequently asked questions about BTSP-115

Is BTSP-115 compulsory for the BFTTM degree?

Yes. It sits inside the 120-credit structure that leads to the UG Degree with Major in Tourism and Travel Management, so the degree cannot be completed without a passed project.

Does BTSP-115 have a written term-end examination?

No. It is assessed on the submitted project report and the viva-voce. There is no three-hour theory paper for this course.

Can a BFTTMOL student submit the BTSP-115 report in Hindi?

BFTTM in ODL mode is offered in English and Hindi, while BFTTMOL is an English-medium programme. Online-mode learners should therefore plan an English report and confirm the medium with the Regional Centre before writing.

Where can the official BTSP-115 project guide be downloaded?

A dedicated BTSP-115 booklet has not been published on eGyanKosh so far. Until it is, students should follow the SOTHSM project pattern and the university’s general project rules, and ask the Regional Centre for the current programme-specific instruction sheet.