Secondary School Students’ Views of Tourism Education and Tourism Careers

ABSTRACT

The global tourism industry has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the World Tourism Organization predicting the possible loss of 1.1 billion international visitors and 1.2 trillion in export revenues. Media coverage has also highlighted the job losses across tourism organizations worldwide. Until recently, tourism was New Zealand’s biggest export earner, employing 8% of the country’s total workforce. However, a negative perception of tourism as both a subject of study and as a career presents challenges for the New Zealand tourism industry, which even before the pandemic was struggling to attract workers. Previous research has found that the often-vocational nature of tourism education contributes to tourism’s reputation as a less credible academic subject. This research, conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, identifies the perceptions New Zealand secondary school tourism students have about a tourism career and the study of tourism and the implications for education, industry and government.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism education
• tourism curriculum
• perceptions of tourism education
• tourism careers
• tourism student voice

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).