A STUDY OF GAP ANALYSIS BETWEEN TOURISM INDUSTRY AND TOURISM EDUCATION IN INDIA

Abstract

The yawning gap that exists between the tourism industry and the academia stresses upon the need to determine the services that attract and retain foreign and domestic tourists. This paper concerns the extent to which tourism higher education meets the needs and expectations of the tourism industry in India. To do this, the perceptions of tourists and managers in the tourism industry are compared with those of educators and students in tourism higher education. The current study is conducted not only on the basis of requirements identified by previous researchers, but also on the basis of the need to provide an ongoing pool of skilled employees to facilitate growth in the tourism industry. The stakeholders, students, university authorities’ and sector representatives’ reactions have been examined to judge the effectiveness of the formal education programs and suggestions have been made to prepare the students for the tourism industry.