In order to improve the educational standards in remote districts and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, the Ministry of Education began to prepare for the establishment of a college on the outlying island of Penghu in October 1990. The " Penghu Branch of Kaohsiung Maritime Junior College" was established On August 1, 1991, and then it was established as an independent school on July 1, 1995, named "National Penghu Maritime Management Junior College". Later in 2000, it was approved to be renamed "National Penghu College of Technology". After five years of joint efforts by faculty and students of the school, it was upgraded into "National Penghu University of Science and Technology" on August 1, 2005.
Penghu County, where the school is located, is a very prosperous area for the leisure and tourism industry, and in order to support the development of the local leisure and tourism industry, it is necessary to expand the development of this related field. Therefore, the school was approved to establish the "Department of Tourism and Leisure" on August 1st , 2006, which has been divided into a tourism group and a leisure group.
In 2007, the Master Program of Tourism and Leisure Business Management was established. In 2009, the Department of Tourism and Leisure no longer recruited students in groups, but two classes instead. In addition, the In-service Master Program of Tourism and Leisure Business Management was added in 2012. In response to the policy of integration of Graduate Institutes and Departments, the master program and in-service master program of "Tourism and Leisure Business Management” which were originally established under the multi-department structure of the College of Tourism and Leisure, were merged with the Department of Tourism and Leisure on August 1, 2015, and officially named as the Department of Tourism and Leisure (including master's programs).