Re-Building Students’ Post-COVID-19 Confidence in Courses, Curriculum and Careers for Tourism, Hospitality, and Events

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the most significant disruption to education in history (United Nations, 2020), not least in Tourism, Hospitality, and Events (THE). While growing evidence explores the reshaping of higher education in a COVID-19 era, limited discussion exists on the specific impacts for current and future students of THE and the challenges of rebuilding student and wider stakeholder confidence in THE education and careers.This paper advances this discussion by focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on the THE educational experience. A case example approach is adopted to illustrate the responses of four universities in the pre, during, and post phases of students' educational journey. Common approaches are drawn using lesson drawing, broader implications and issues affecting institutions and students are explored and lessons for the future of THE education are extrapolated. Finally, the paper also suggests avenues for future research.

Understanding the Impacts of Chinese Undergraduate Tourism Students’ Professional Identity on Learning Engagement

“…As mentioned in the literature review, the research focused on examining university tourism students' professional identity is very limited [7,28]-the prior research on professional identity mainly concentrated on educational and medical students [40,80]. This study further verified the impact of professional identity on learning engagement [11,13]. The employment prospect of university tourism students in China is not optimistic, and students' professional identity shows a downward trend.…”

“…The current status of Chinese undergraduate tourism students' professional identity and learning engagement are not optimistic, which tends to weaken the employment competitiveness, and even affects the sustainable development of tourism education and the tourism industry [6,7]. The research noted that university students' professional identity could be improved to alleviate learning anxieties and enhance their satisfaction and engagement [13].…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the negative impacts of the problem [12]. Government, society, enterprises, and universities need to work together to weaken the negative impacts of social and cultural background through active intervention and re-building students' professional confidence on the tourism profession [13]. For example, according to the requirements of talent training, students are advised to formulate a phased learning plan and reasonable career planning to increase learning engagement through strengthening university-enterprise cooperation.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted employment in the tourism and hotel industry, with an estimated 100-120 million direct job losses worldwide at the beginning of the epidemic [10]. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, tourism education was also badly affected, and re-building students' professional confidence has attracted extensive attention [11][12][13]. The number of Chinese students who would like to choose tourism majors for university education has been declining, and the rate of transferring tourism majors has increased after entering university [14].…”

Effective airbnb advertising during COVID-19 pandemic: Message format and hypothetical distance

“…The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vulnerability of the tourism and hospitality sector, by threatening their operations, management, and revenues ( Choi & Choi, 2021 ; Crick et al, 2021 ; Siow et al, 2021 ). Airbnb hosts have been substantially hit by a large drop in the number of bookings, and by the travel restrictions introduced under the government's coronavirus action plan ( Chen et al, 2022 ; Dolnicar & Zare, 2020 ).…”