Tourism is essentially a labour intensive industry, requiring large numbers of people to service it. The critical socioeconomic importance of tourism to tourist destinations, the increase in world tourism and in tourist demand for quality goods and services, the concomitant requirement for tourist destinations to deliver quality services and products, and the labour intensive nature of the industry, all suggest the need for a well-educated and trained cadre of hospitality and tourism professionals.
Tourism is a labour intensive service industry and dependent for survival (and for competitive advantage) on the availability of qualified personnel to deliver, operate, and manage the tourism product. In these regard individuals with more human capital, for example; skills, knowledge and expertise developed through education and personal experience, achieve higher performance.
Since the continued prosperity of tourism depends, to a large extent, on the employment of well educated, motivated, and committed people who are satisfied with their jobs, it is very important to provide qualified tourism graduates with a positive attitude towards working in the tourism industry. Because, probably the most fundamental challenge facing the hospitality industry is “the attraction and retention of the necessary number and quality of young people, attracting people who wish to choose tourism as a career has become a challenging task, and particularly when we consider the negative image many people have of the industry. There seems to be an increasing imbalance between the demand for and supply of tourism workers and this issue if not addressed immediately will severely affect the sustainability of global tourism. When tourism graduates end up not working in tourism, this results in wasted effort and investment in providing the knowledge and skills needed by the tourism industry. It has been suggested that an effective way to manage the retention of graduates to work in tourism is by targeting the first stage in the human resource management process; the recruitment stage.
See undergraduate project topics for tourism students
Many universities in the world strive to increase the number of hospitality and tourism programs. The reasons behind this interest are related to the growth of the tourism sector. In general, education is very important for the hospitality and tourism industry because it provides support for undergraduates to be more knowledgeable and more experienced in the field.

TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

The Hospitality and Tourism Cluster prepares learners for careers in the management, marketing and operations of restaurants and other food services, lodging, attractions, recreational events and travel-related services.
Tourism is a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes while the hospitality industry is the combination of the accommodation, food and beverage groupings which collectively make up the largest segment of the industry.

BENEFITS OF BEING TOURISM STUDENTS

A) COMMUNICATION SKILLS

One of the benefits of being a tourism student is that it improves your communication skills. Because of the nature of the hospitality and tourism industry which includes mention people every day, it helps you grow and improve on your communication skills because you would need to communicate fluently and a manner your clients will understand and be comfortable.

B) GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY

Careers in the tourism and hospitality industry are amongst the fastest growing areas of employment in the world. In Australia, the government has launched the Tourism Employment Plan Guide and a new Tourism Employment Plan Advisory Service to help tourism businesses overcome recruitment, retention, and skills deficiencies. The jobs out there are plentiful, and not just in Australia, you can land a job anywhere in the world.

C) VERSATILITY

A career in travel and tourism offers endless opportunities generally in non-traditional hours. Whether you want to work in a hotel, resort, cruise ship, plane the world is literally your oyster. Professionals in the tourism industry have so many exciting work settings and opportunities to choose from.

D) LEADERSHIP SKILLS

A degree in Tourism teaches students about business management, marketing fundamentals, human resources, project management, sustainability, cross-cultural awareness and so much more. The knowledge and skills acquired through the program is essential and useful for a variety of different careers. Students leave the program well-rounded in many important business and leadership aspects.

E) TOURISM IS FUN

Field trips is said to enhance students’ learning and increased their practical knowledge in the absence of actual work experience. Besides enhancement of student learning, fieldtrips also benefit faculty members with valuable professional development experience especially for younger tourism educators. As the hospitality and tourism industry has become a more complex industry, research on fieldtrips in this area of education is an important and neglected research area, where future employers expect non-vocational skills as well such as interpersonal skills, analysis, and reflection.
Ever notice how people in the tourism industry always seem to be smiling and having a great time? It’s because a career in tourism is so much fun. When you are exposed to new things and meeting people from all over the world every day, life becomes an adventure. Travelling is the best way to not only understand the world we live in but also to understand ourselves.

F) NEW IDEAS AND TECHNOLOGY

The hospitality and tourism industry helps you come up with new ideas and technology specifically for the growth of the industry. You sort ways to improve on the performance of the industry and attract more tourist and investors into the industry.

G) PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY

Last but not the least is problem solving ability. As a tourism student, it avails you the opportunity to solve problems such as to customers comfort, continuous patronage, and attraction of more tourists.

CONCLUSION

Changes in the higher educational environment are having a tremendous impact on the education process, curricular, learning outcomes, and instructional practices. In particular, education and training are vital to the tourism and hospitality industry in terms of providing a foundation of knowledge and experience for those who wish to enter the tourism industry as a career choice. Effective tourism education and training require a cooperative approach, involving partnerships among academic institutions, private enterprises, and government at different levels, to balance between academic principles and technical knowledge and vocational skills.

My brother graduated from tourism Dept last year and have been looking for a job since but nothing is coming