Undergraduates’ perceptions of tourism and hospitality as a career choice

Abstract

This study explored undergraduate tourism and hospitality student's views of the industry as a career choice. Three hundred and seventy-nine tourism and hospitality students, from eight Australian institutions, completed a questionnaire rating the importance of 20 factors in influencing their choice of career, and then the extent to which they believed tourism and hospitality, as a career, offers these factors. A number of factors have been identified as being significantly different. From the results it is clear that students generally do not believe that a career in tourism and hospitality will offer them the factors that they find important.