A Tourism and Hospitality Education Management Model: The Case of the Tourism Department of Sultan Qaboos University

Abstract

The tourism and hospitality education is a branch of the overall tourism and hospitality industry that is dedicated to providing the industry with well educated, adequately trained, and committed workforce. The Tourism Department at the College of Arts and Social Sciences (Sultan Qaboos University), Oman, has been providing the Omani society with undergraduate tourism and hospitality educational services since Fall 2001. Even though Tourism Department graduates are not facing any employment concerns, fluctuation in the number of enrollees and graduates, however, has been a significant characteristic since the inception of the program. Due to cultural and societal issues, and market needs, the program specializations and study plans were changed and amended. To assure sustainability of the program, several tactical and strategic decisions have been made, notably that the program has received accreditation from two prestigious international accreditation institutions (UNWTO-TedQual certification and the Agency for Quality Assurance through Accreditation of Study Programs-AQAS), which mark two major milestones in the educational journey of the Tourism Department.The current study, thus, aims to provide a tourism and hospitality education management model based on the Tourism Department of Sultan Qaboos University experience. To achieve this aim, the following objectives were identified: to analyze students in -graduates out matrix, to assess graduates' employment trends, and to demonstrate the department educational and management framework. This study sheds light on the educational model created and followed by the Tourism Department, in an effort to provide a tourism and hospitality education management model, that would help educators and administrators of tourism and hospitality academic programs.

Untitled

“…Over the last 10 years two instructors were responsible for teaching those courses, their comments tackled three main issues: Several studies by field specialists (Al-Balushi 2008, UNWTO andMOT 2011) indicated that Omani hospitality discipline graduates do not work in the field, especially, they stand-away of working in food production or service. Tourism Department graduates' enrolment in the industry workforce is so limited, they mainly choose the government (public) sector (Atef 2018). Job opportunities in indirectly related fields is the reason that the Hospitality Management Specialization is still surviving, in many cases, employers do not differentiate between specializations, for them they are all -Tourism Department Graduates‖.…”

Untitled

“…A comprehensive study of the tourism undergraduate study plan (2010) indicated that the 12 "Specialization Requirements" courses (See Table 1) based on the courses files analysis could be classified as "Operational" and/or "Managerial" courses (Atef, 2018)…”

Tourism and Hospitality Management Education in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects

“…Tourism education is how a tourism authority prepares human resources to work professionally in the development of tourism sectors (Malihah & Setiyorini, 2014, October). It is a significant part of the entire tourism industry and is also devoted to providing a welleducated, dedicated, and appropriately trained workforce in the tourism industry (Atef, 2018). It is known that management education has taught people to plan, organize, execute, manage and evaluate any task effectively and efficiently.…”