Changing Dimensions of Tourism Education in India : Experiences, Opportunities and Challenges

Tourism industry is a labor intensive service industry, depend for survival and at best, competitive advantage on the availability of good quality human resource to deliver, operate, and manage the tourism industry.

The service quality of tourism destination totally depends upon availability of quality human resources in the industry.

There has been great demand of professional education particularly tourism education.

This has led to mushrooming of many institutions and courses on tourism management in country. Change in the curriculum, content, character and structure of tourism education and reshaping it to meet the needs of both the industry and academic are the top priority tasks.

Purpose

This paper provides an insight into issues that affect the integration of education, training and learning outcomes in tourism education.

It also raises questions that tourism stakeholders need to address if tourism, both as an industry and as field of study, is to sustain itself in long term perspective.

In this regard, to meet the evolving needs of industry and academics, an innovative approach has been discussed to make educational institutions aware of the gap between the content and the design of their tourism programs in relation to industry.

ExperienceChallengesOpportunities

The global Travel & Tourism industry will grow by 2.8% in 2012, marginally faster than the global rate of economic growth, predicted to be 2.5%.

This rate of growth means that Travel & Tourism industry is expected to directly contribute $2 trillion to the global economy and sustain some 100.3 million jobs

When the wider economic impacts of the industry are taken into account, Travel & Tourism is forecast to contribute some $6.5 trillion to the global economy and generate 260 million jobs or 1 in 12 of all jobs on the planet.

Source WTTC

There are more than 8000 Tour & Travel entities in India spread across the four geographic regions of the country.

Travel Agencies and Tour operators account for 38% and 43% of the above.

In India the Tour and Travel units employ more than 96 thousand people across various functions.

Tour & Ticketing functions employ half the total work force followed by accounts and administration.Incidence of formally trained personnel is high and stood at 55% and managerial staff accounts for almost 21% of the total work force.

Each Travel & Tour on an average employees 12 people.

The remuneration at entry level touched almost Rs. 12500 in 2010.

OUTLOOK-TRAVEL & TOUR FIRMS

Attrition rate higher in this sector and touched 50% in the Tour Operators & Travel Agencies.

OUTLOOK-TRAVEL & TOUR FIRMS

SNAPSHOT OF TRAVEL & TOUR FIRMSSource : Market Pulse MOT study, 2011

SEGMENT WISE NO. OF TRAVEL & TOUR UNITS IN 2010

Region Travel Agency Tour OperatorAdventure Tour OperatorTourist Transport OperatorEast501344--138North7001595392112South1018862731--West84055015907North East13116----All India 307234671420119

EDUCATION & TRANING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR H & T

Region Govt. Owned HM Institutes Other HM Institutes Tourism & Travel Institutes East 61212North155759South59395West53637All India31198203Total - 432

The total students who have passed out from Hospitality & Tourism institutes 62347.

SIZE OF GRADUATING CLASS IN THE H & T in 2010

Govt. Owned HM institutes Other HM institutesTourism & Travel Institutes Total 62447 51972985627294

Total Students

The recent expansion in tourism-related courses has mushroomed.

Such growth has been fuelled by the rapid expansion of the industry and recognition by governments that tourism contributes significantly to local and national economies.

Tourism employers often recruit non- tourism graduates.

Tourism degrees no uniform title or description as to their nature and content. Ex- MTA, MTM, MATM, PGDM, MBA-TOURISM etc

Standardized HR practices in tourism sector.

Education of the facultyDevelopment of employabilityTeaching methods and textbook contents need improvementAn effective evaluation systemQuality focused educationIntegration of research and teachingPublic-Private Partnership and MOU

Approach to Tourism Education

Need to understand dynamics of industryUnderstanding market orientationCurriculum led to learningCorporate Ties Ups Supporting tourism training institutesFacilitating skill development in tourism sector Promoting Corporate entrepreneurs in SMTE through Human Resource Development.Creating network of excellenceGreater focus on ethics

CONCLUSIONRole of industry intervention is required for excellence in tourism education.Collaborative approach need to adopt among four major stakeholders Government, Institution, Students and Industry.Networking for excellence.

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