Strategic Planning for Effective Hospitality and Tourism Rducation: Some Observations and Suggestions

Tourism education has been considered as one of the important tool for the sustainability of tourism industry. In fact, we cannot think the development of hospitality and tourism industry without imparting education in this field. The current status of tourism education in India as well as future need which might arise soon is discussed in this paper. The aim of the study is to suggest a strategic approach in order to make tourism education more effective and worthy.. Deans, Directors of the institutions offering tourism education in India were asked to complete a questionnaire. A total of 40 usable questionnaires were seveted . Participants were asked to rate the extent of their business schools collaborating with industry on 23 listed areas on a scale of 1 to 5. The various modes of academia- industry interface were also highlighted to understand the pedagogy. The importance of guest lectures, training and internship of students was also discussed with participants. The Paper also highlights the number of avenues through which hospitality & tourism institutions can collaborate with industry. The top five modes are- Guest lectures, training and internship of students, inclusion of industry experts in board of studies executive level programme and industry inputs in curriculum designing. The paper also highlights the extent of perceived benefits from mentioned partnership methods. It was found that joint seminars and case reading were the most useful in this regard.