Bridging the Gap between Tourism Education, Tourism Industry and Graduate Employability: Intricacies and Emerging Issues in Thailand

Abstract

The university education system in ASEAN will be affected by the new market conditions. The path to success for Thai educational institutions is to engage the market with a frontal assault by anticipating market demands and preparing themselves to meet that demand. Hospitality and Tourism is an interdisciplinary field requiring different employability competency that has yet to gain attention by tourism and hospitality educators in the academia. If the travel and tourism industry in Thailand hopes to sustain itself, it will need personnel who are both willing and enthusiastic workforce. This requires educational institution to create curricula to equip tourism and hospitality graduates with necessary skills and to impart knowledge. Students aspiring to take up tourism as their careers must be well aware of the ‘professional’ commitments of the industry. The future of the tourism and hospitality industry will really demand creative ideas from the next generation. Employability questions are beginning to stress what new ideas the candidates can bring. This paper provides insight into certain overlooked perspectives, missing linkages and policy gaps between institutions imparting tourism education and the tourism industry leading to employable graduates.