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Educating for Success in Tourism

This article explores the need to design tourism education that goes beyond vocational training and prepares students to meet the needs of tourists, the tourism industry, other stakeholders, and future generations. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating reflective practice and philosophical thinking in tourism education to create a wider vision of successful tourism.

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Educating for Success in Tourism

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  1. Educating for Success in Tourism John Tribe

  2. Two questions… • Do we prepare the tourism workforce to meet the needs of • tourists? • the tourism industry? • other stakeholders? • future generations? • tourism? • What is successful tourism? • Use of Art to stretch our thinking

  3. What is successful tourism? • At a micro level: • Customers (numbers) • Customers (satisfaction) • Profit (Service) • Value for money • At a macro level • Tourist arrivals • Expenditure • FC earnings • Employment • GNP

  4. Educational Need: Vocational Action • This is education to do a job in the sector • And provide a good tourist experience ….

  5. Education for Vocational Action • operational and technical knowledge • communication skills • interpersonal skills • service quality management • marketing • managerial accounting • travel industry • work placement (Koh, 1995) but this can lead to narrowness…

  6. Vocationalism • This narrow view of tourism and education can be labelled “vocationalism” • Persistent “vocationalist” pressures over the last 20 years on higher education …

  7. How do we design tourism education to create and meet a wider vision of success? From Vocationalism to Reflective Practice to Philosophic Practice

  8. The Philosophic Practitioner • Analysed from two directions – ends and stance • Ends • Vocational and Liberal • Stance • Theory and Practice

  9. Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Vocational

  10. Vocational Action Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Vocational Vocational Action

  11. Adding the Reflective Vocational Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Vocational Reflective Vocational

  12. Reflective vocational • reflection in action (Schön, 1987) • dialectic between theorised world and encountered world • professional artistry • problem solving skills • mindful managers (Moscardo, 1997) • work placement • A “Virgin” person

  13. A Virgin Person “A Virgin person” would typically: • Have a passion for new ideas • Think 'differently' • Have signs of creativity • Can smell new business opportunities • Always listens to customers” • i.e. have a creative approach solving problems at the workplace

  14. Beyond a Virgin Person • A Virgin person would be not just vocationally competent but also vocationally creative. • But like Schön’s reflective practitioner a Virgin person is good as far as it goes but the concept does not escape the boundaries of work. • My argument is that we need to demand more of our graduates. • We need to fulfil the promise of higher education • In particular we need to develop their extra-vocational abilities, to conscript them into a fuller understanding of the world and encourage them to contribute to the construction and stewardship of the wider world.

  15. Beyond the Virgin Person…… thinking outside the plane

  16. Liberal Reflection Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Reflective Liberal Vocational

  17. unbounded reflection the truth scepticism the good life becoming (Freire, 1972) philosophy of tourism tourism ethics This involves asking … Liberal Reflection

  18. … What is our vision of a tourism Utopia? …

  19. … and Identifying Additional Success Factors, e.g. • Sustainability • Mobility and Access • Gender equality • Working Conditions • Tourism’s asymmetries • Aesthetics • Culture, Heritage and Identity • Resident Impacts

  20. Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Liberal Action Vocational

  21. Liberal Action • World-making • Participation • Improved tourism practices (cf. Schön) and social engagement • Power and Politics in Tourism • Responsible Tourism • Philosophic Practicum • Alternative placements • Examples …

  22. Blue Flags • Improving the water quality of beaches

  23. Tourism Concern

  24. Carbon Offsetting

  25. A clear vision of utopia A challenge to hegemonic practices Centring of the poor De-centring of The consumer Profitability The industry Redesign (Goodwin) Pro-poor tourism

  26. Gross National Happiness (GNH) • Defines quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product. (King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan) • Commitment to advance Bhutan's culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. • The four pillars of GNH are • the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development • preservation and promotion of cultural values • conservation of the natural environment • establishment of good governance.

  27. The Philosophic Practitioner • Does tourism education meet the needs of • tourists? • the tourism industry? • other stakeholders? • future generations? • tourism? • Efficient and effective labour force • Avoid reproduction (Apple, 1990) • Aristotle: The Good Life: • consideration of ends as well as means • what kind of a tourism world do we want? • World-making: Taking an active role • Stewardship: Looking after the world

  28. Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Reflective Liberal Liberal Action The Philosophic Practitioner Vocational Reflective Vocational Vocational Action

  29. Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Reflective Liberal Liberal Action The Philosophic Practitioner Vocational Reflective Vocational Vocational Action

  30. Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Reflective Liberal Liberal Action The Philosophic Practitioner Vocational Reflective Vocational Vocational Action

  31. Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Reflective Liberal Liberal Action The Philosophic Practitioner Vocational Reflective Vocational Vocational Action

  32. Stance Reflection Action Ends Liberal Reflective Liberal Liberal Action The Philosophic Practitioner Vocational Reflective Vocational Vocational Action

  33. Philosophic Practice offers liberation form our acquired view Luis Buñuel, Still from Un chien andalou, 1928 Buñuel’s cutting of the eye Conclusion

  34. A Philosophic Practitioner • In memory of Timothy Bennet, Shoemaker of Hampton Wick, by whose efforts the adjoining footpath was preserved for the use and enjoyment of the public • "I am unwilling to leave the world worse than I found it”

  35. Philosophic Practitioners? • Jamie Oliver? • Michael O’Leary?

  36. Educating for Success in Tourism The End

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