Is Tourism Education Meeting the Needs of the Tourism Industry? An Australian case study

Abstract

Despite the rapid growth in the provision of tourism higher education over the past 40 years, there remain uncertainties relating to the content and nature of tourism degrees, and challenges in aligning tourism education with the needs of the tourism industry. While there has been some limited discussion of tourism higher education and suggested curriculum design, and its effectiveness in meeting the needs of industry has been neglected.

This research involved comparing the views of industry representatives and tourism academics of the perceived importance of knowledge provided by tourism education in Australia. Content analysis and gap analysis were applied to analyse these data.

This study found that there is considerable variance between the respective views of industry professionals and tourism education providers in Australia, firstly on the relative value of tertiary degrees for tourism; secondly, on the relative merits of various subjects taught at university. These findings suggest that a gap exists between the current tourism curriculum and the needs of the tourism industry and those involved in curriculum design should continue to work closely with industry representatives to ensure a stronger connection between theory and practice, therefore, improving the likelihood that graduates of tourism higher education courses will graduate with the knowledge aligned with the needs and expectations of the tourism industry.

Keywords:

• Tourism education
• Australia
• industry needs