Challenges of Tourism Education: Emotions versus Business (original) (raw)
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Purpose: Tourism Education, a professional course, must impart knowledge and skill sets suitable for immediate employment in the tourism industry. This study aims to explore the expectations of tourism educators and industry, with respect to the important skill sets and knowledge required by the tourism students. Further, the study compares the views of tourism educators and industry representatives on the knowledge and skills imparted by tourism educational institutes in the country. Design/Methodology/Approach: This is a Descriptive study wherein both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. For this study, data was collected from both primary and secondary data sources. In-depth interviews and questionnaires were the tools used to collect primary data while the secondary data have been collected from various university websites, journals, and tourism magazines. Findings: The major finding of the study showcases that there exists a difference of opinion between the touri...
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INNOVATION IN TOURISM EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT
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Although much of the discussion on the permanent process of innovation focuses on new products and technologies, all innovation is based on challenging existing assumptions and ways of thinking, in particular, it is argued, as a result of education and training. This paper argues that one option for developing the new ways of thinking in the management of innovation in tourism is the use of complicated and miscellaneous tourism educational program models. The analysis of tourism educational developmental history shows that being contemporary it is a new educational sphere. A special place is allocated to analyses of multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary studies in higher education, development educational program models. At the end a suggestion is made to discuss the conceptual issues regarding coordination of the interests of students, employers and teaching staff in enhancing the quality of higher education in tourism. Material for the paper has been gathered through contacting experts in the field and conducting extensive literary reviews. Key words: development of tourism education, tourism educational program models, educational system, multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary studies. Introduction Tourism is a continuously expanding industry with huge economic potential. The World Tourism Organization shows that from 1995 to 2005 tourism globally grew by 4.5%, an increase of over 36 million tourists 1. The tourism product is a composite one with its production, distribution and marketing being configured along a value chain involving many activities which are vertically, horizontally and diagonally related and integrated in varying degrees. In Europe, EU enlargement and diversifying regional economies have opened up new tourist destinations to add to this ever increasing market. Rapid development of tourism industry has involved large amounts of human resources. The number of people occupied in the HORECA sector grows faster than the total labour force. The tourism industry represents about 8.6 mln people employed with 24 mln. in the broad definition corresponding to around 4 and 12% respectively of the total EU labour force. In the period 2000 to 2004 in the 27 Member States of the enlarged Community the growth rate in the number of people occupied in the HORECA sector was on average significantly higher then the growth rate of total employment 2. Latvian tourism is a micro and SME-dominated sector, with over 99% of firms employing fewer than 250 individuals 3. High standards for education and professional qualification are vitally important element. This element is necessary in order to satisfy completely the high demands, wishes and needs of today's tourists. Only in such a way further rapid development of separate enterprises, as well as of the entire sphere is possible. Alongside with the changes in the tourism sphere greater changes are needed in the field of tourism education. The analysis of the qualitative personnel, employed in tourism and other spheres related to it, shows that in many cases the employees are from other spheres-without education or qualification in the sphere of tourism. The leading criterion for the choice of such personnel is the low price, on the one hand, but on the other hand, the quality of such service is a problem. Today it is the most essential factor for the competitiveness of companies. So far, many questions arise for those who train the specialists for a tourism and chains involving many activities. Therefore, within the dynamic approach to innovation in tourism industry, great changes in the tourism educational end training are expected. The problem of the day-clearly anticipate the "real needs" of specialists in the modern tourism industry; which kind of scientific courses and practice we should teach and train;, which initiatives and winning strategies need to be emphasized and any additional questions-how to create a studying-field of the tourism industry.
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The aim of this study is to address the following questions:(1) Is there a gap between the curricula taught in tourism and hotels faculties and the knowledge and skills required in the tourism labour market?, and (2)Do the students' knowledge and skills acquired during their study in a tourism and hotels faculties qualify them to join the tourism labour market. A qualitative approach is employed in the current study to answer the research questions. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were used in the present research. The study findings revealed the existence of a gap between the curricula that have been taught in tourism faculties and the tourism labour market requirements. Furthermore, the curricula have not met the requirements of the tourism labour market and graduates' needs. Some managerial implications were provided in this research so that tourism education in Egypt can use them as a guide when developing the curricula of educational tourism to meet the requirement...
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Evolvement of tourism industry dates back to 2000 years and at present it is one of the fastest growing sectors in the globe today. This has led to the growth of tourism education in the form of graduate, post graduate and certificate courses. Though many researches have been done on tourism curriculum design but to what extent this curriculum meets the industry requirements.
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Tourism education offered by higher education institutions providing undergraduate and associate level education plays an important role in training human resources at desired quantity and quality to provide sustainable quality services in the tourism sector where an intense competition is experienced at national and international level. The quality of services offered in the tourism sector which is experiencing an intense competition can be achieved and improved through high-quality employees. The educational service quality in the schools offering tourism education plays a decisive role in making students qualified who will be employed in the tourism sector in the future. In this context, it is of paramount importance to determine the expectations, perceptions and satisfaction of students in terms of the quality of educational services provided in schools. In this theoretical study, student expectations, perceptions and satisfaction have been assessed under the Maslow's Theory...