I want to be in a certain career environment (entertainment/tourism), but also want to have the option of working with businesses. What type of communications degree should I choose?

BluJean Casey offered lots of good advice, but I'd like to emphasize the importance of acquiring work experience and ideally internship experience as soon as possible. According to a 2012 study of 50,000 employers, most choose the candidate that they want to hire based on their internship and other work experience more than any other factor (including where they went to school, their major, GPA, etc.). You can read more about the study here: https://chronicle.com/items/biz/pdf/Employers%20Survey.pdf. Most graduates have at least one internship, and many in the careers that you're considering have several by the time they graduate. Fortunately in the entertainment industry, you can find part-time employment if an internship is not feasible.

I'd also suggest that you conduct as many informational interviews as you possibly can. These are conversations with professionals in career fields that interest you about what they do, how they got to where they are, etc. This is a great way to learn about career options and grow your network. Networking is the best way to find a job nowadays, and it's going to be particularly important that you have a strong network in the entertainment/communications industry. You can learn more about informational interviewing by clicking on this link: https://www.quintcareers.com/informational-interviewing/.

Hope this helps a bit, and good luck to you!

These are all great questions and it sounds like you really want to make an informed decision, but it also sounds like you have a lot of questions about what all these potential jobs would entail. For now, instead of focusing on which major, ask yourself why you've chosen these areas. What it is about the entertainment industry you find interesting? Is it because you'll be working with people in fun places, or are you more interested in how the business itself (such as a hotel) should be conducted? Would you be equally happy working in business outside of entertainment/ tourism? Which part of business interests you, and do you see yourself working on business strategy with number and algorithms or working with people to acquire business? Business, communications, and marketing are huge fields with many lesser known opportunities in between. And honestly, once you get out in the field, many entry level jobs will take a range of degree fields such as business, finance, marking etc. Instead of asking which degrees, start asking about which jobs are out there that interest you. Search online for jobs in different fields and read the job descriptions to see if it interests you. Try and find someone, maybe a professor or family friend who works in the industry and see if you can shadow them for the day and ask yourself if that's what you imagined doing. Lastly, look into internships early in the entertainment/tourists industry to get a better idea of what a job there would look like. And don't worry about finding a major so soon! The best of us changed majors at least 4 times :) Good luck!