Tourism and hotel education in kingdom of Saudi Arabia and industry needs

Abstract EN

The significance of tourism and hotel education has been recognized globally.

The responsibility of developing tourism and hotel management human resources lies within tourism and hotel organizations and within the education system of the country The aim of this research is to evaluate the current tourism and hotel education system in KSA and to what extent it meet needs and requirements of the industry .In order to achieve this aim, researchers have compared current tourism and hotel education programs in colleges and universities with international education standards.

They also conducted interviews with industry professionals in hotels and travel agencies and distributed questionnaires to tourism and hotel graduates to investigate their perceptions towards education standard and industry competencies.

The most obvious findings from analysis of secondary data, interviews and questionnaires are the lack of qualified tourism educators and employees in tourism and hotel education institutes in KSA, a big gab between what is taught in schools, colleges and universities and the realities of the industry itself .The main reason of this gab was that there is no contact and communication between education and industry.

Recommendations of this research can be concluded in improving of the tourism and hotel education system and its structure, improvement of the design of the syllabuses with more language training and the balance of theory and practice, change from a traditional teaching mode to a more modernized innovative and interactive teaching mode, and greater responsiveness of education to the needs of the industry.