Industry Relations and Curricula Design in Austrian Tourism Master Programs: A Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT

Changing circumstances and developments related to tourism consistently lead to new challenges for the higher education system. In order to meet the demands of the tourism industry on both personal and career levels, people need competencies that enable them to cope with the changing circumstances of the business world. Yet, there appears to be a considerable gap between what educational institutions offer as management level tourism education and the needs that are expressed by the tourism industry. The aim of this article is to discuss industrial needs and requirements and their subsequent integration into tourism curricula. Following the trend toward academic/practitioner collaboration, this article sets out to contribute to the ongoing debate about the extent to which competencies are integrated into the development of educational programs and reports on an exploratory study of Austria's universities of applied sciences (UAS) master programs in tourism by means of content analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• curricula design
• industry relations
• destination partners
• skills
• and competencies

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