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This paper aims to identify skills and competencies perceived relevant by tourism graduate employees and tourism employers for providing quality tourism services in Kenya.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes in tourists’ attitudes and behaviors mostly as a result of confinement-related problems. Although various studies have been conducted to analyze customers’ perceptions of service quality and satisfaction using a drop-off/pick-up method, the influence of COVID-19 on customers’ perceptions of service quality and satisfaction has not been examined using online reviews. It is critical to evaluate satisfaction aspects from user-generated content to ascertain their preferences for hotel services during the pandemic. This research aims to explore the viewpoint shared online by hotel tourists, as well as identify which service practice is associated with higher and lower satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper seeks to report on research investigating students' and industry's expectations and assumptions of the desired attributes of hospitality employees.

Views on a range of questions about the value of a hospitality degree are analysed, based on a survey of 74 hospitality managers and 137 students.

The divergence in views between students and industry was significant. Students thought knowledge and skills were important for new employees, but industry was far more interested in personality. To get promoted, students thought they would have to become good communicators, but industry was more interested in initiative. Industry's views suggest that managers value attitudinal attributes over skills, and are therefore prepared to help employees gain the skills needed for their roles.

There were limited responses from hotel general managers (GMs). Their views on what graduates need to accomplish to reach the position of GM would have added value to this study, so further research focusing on GMs' views is recommended.

This paper analyses the beliefs of hospitality students and industry regarding the desired attributes of hospitality employees. Their expectations and assumptions are significantly different, and the gap is a cause for concern for educators and industry to address.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how recent graduates of a university's tourism management programme in New Zealand perceive job quality in the tourism industry.

Semi‐structured interviews are used to examine graduates' assessments of the quality of their current jobs. These assessments are informed by their personal expectations and experiences. Understanding job quality requires an approach that takes into account both economic and non‐economic variables.

The interviews indicate the importance of job content and its compatibility with interests and preferences. Graduates associate job quality with opportunities to consume tourism products, assist tourists, acquire valued knowledge, confront challenges, and perform meaningful work. The quality of a job is influenced by the types of tasks graduates are required to undertake. However, graduates also consider a job's ability to provide access to a better job in the future.

Although graduates were able to share their views in an in‐depth fashion through the interviews, the size of the sample prevents the author from determining whether the interviews uncover sweeping trends or the experiences of only a small group of individuals.

The study incorporates the voices of university graduates into the study of job quality in the tourism industry. An important determinant of job quality revealed through this research is the extent to which graduates receive intrinsic rewards from their jobs. Even though the findings of the study diverge from the view that jobs in the tourism industry are mainly of poor quality, a number of graduates would still prefer to see some improvement in the quality of their jobs.

The aim of this paper is to present longitudinal data regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.

A survey instrument was designed to incorporate questions relating to current and previous employments, recent training/education and personal details. The original study was sent to graduates by their respective colleges and there were 444 respondents to the survey. The follow‐up questionnaire in the current study was sent to all those who had responded to the initial survey and who had provided addresses (374).

There is a significant drop‐out rate from employment in the tourism/hospitality industry in Ireland, which is particularly obvious amongst women. Those employed in the industry identified poor remuneration and unsuitable working hours as the major issues in need of redress. There is constant reference to work conditions within the tourism/hospitality industry throughout this study and, in particular, their apparent incompatibility with family life.

Owing to the small sample size, results presented here are largely indicative. Nonetheless, some general trends are discernible.

The issues raised in this study have implications for those involved in the provision of tourism/hospitality programmes as well as tourism employers, particularly in an Irish context, where there is an ongoing shortage of skilled workers in the sector.

Tracking studies usually only attempt to monitor graduates' entry into the workforce and do not follow their career paths over time. The objective of this study, however, was to provide longitudinal data and unique insights regarding the career progression of Irish tourism and hospitality management graduates.

China’s tourism and hotel education at tertiary level started in the late 1970s. A lack of qualified tourism educators and employees is a common concern for all levels of Chinese tourism education. Further education and training for the faculty in institutions has become an urgent need for the Chinese government and the institutions themselves. The purposes of this study are to examine the education needs of tourism academics in terms of their perception of the value of upgrading their qualifications, the likelihood of further studies, levels of attainment, preference of study places and possible barriers; to understand the degree of importance of upgrading their qualifications; and to identify the main tourism training and education issues facing China in the twenty‐first century. The results suggest that the Chinese academics perceive upgrading their qualifications and getting more exposure to the outside world as important to them. The training and education issues facing China in the twenty‐first century are improvement of the tourism education system and its structure, improvement in the design of the syllabuses with more language training and the balance of theory and practice, change from a traditional teaching mode to a more modernized innovative and interactive teaching mode, and greater responsiveness of education to the needs of the industry.

The aim of this paper is to explore sustainable tourism initiatives, particularly by identifying the extent to which hospitality education has empowered Nigerian female graduates in their professional and economic circumstances.

The scope is limited to graduates from an all-female institution offering tertiary-level programmes in hospitality, using the survey method.

The paper shows significant relationships between level of educational attainment, type of employment engaged in, and the range of income of hospitality graduates.

A limitation to this study is the relatively small size of the sample (300) and subsequent number of respondents (80).

The implications follow through from the potential strategies identified in the study that may be adopted by the tourism industry for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the principles of the UN Global Compact particularly in the promotion of sustainable initiatives for women through hospitality education.

Gender and empowerment in tourism has been researched extensively from a commercial standpoint. However, this paper address the gap in the literature as it relates to specialised hospitality education as a contributory factor in the empowerment of women.

Tourism and hospitality is one of the fastest growing segments of the services industry in India, and there is tremendous need and opportunity for young, educated and qualified professionals. Academics and employers agree that there is an increasing gap between the soft skills that companies expect from their entry-level employees and the skills that these young people possess. To bridge this gap, industry leaders and researchers indicate the need for more soft skills training. The purpose of this paper is to identify soft skills competencies that are required for a diverse group of entry-level employees and then to identify gaps by exploring the hospitality programme and internships.

The research is analytical in nature and draws on a literature review and a questionnaire as a survey tool for stakeholders. The research had separate questionnaires for employers, students and faculty members of the Vedatya Institute, educator for the service industry. The research is focused on entry-level employees – students who had graduated from Vedatya Institute in the past five years. The employers are primarily general managers and human resource managers of five-star hotels who have recruited and been part of campus interviews.

The research analysed soft or employability skills for the hospitality industry, and it provided valuable insights from employers and perceptions of graduates in attainment of those skills during their degree programme. The study highlighted the significant role of internship in developing soft skills.

The paper recommends practical solutions for educators and organizations that can be applied. The research synthesized current thinking on required soft skills for young entry-level employees and explores the soft skills gap in the context of a growing soft skills training market with recommendation for stakeholders.

The research sought to address the real life problem impacting the hospitality industry in India using inputs from the literature, graduates and employers.

This study aims to examine the association between the elements which influence the career decision-making process of tenured hospitality employees and their existing level of career satisfaction (CSat) and future intention.

Adopting a quantitative approach, a questionnaire survey collected data from 564 individuals working as full-time employees at all levels of the hierarchy in four- and five-star hotel establishments in Cyprus. Structural equation modeling analysis, preceded by exploratory factor analysis, was utilized to assess the constructs’ relationships and address the postulated hypotheses.

The results suggest that accurate job-person fit, reflective career awareness and the individuals’ pragmatic occupational perceptions, positively influence their CSat and, subsequently, strengthen their intention to remain and progress within the industry.

The study’s setting, the Cyprus hospitality industry, a Mediterranean seasonal destination with unique operational characteristics, may limit the generalizability of the findings to business environments in other regions.

Insights are of interest and value to stakeholders, including academic scholars wishing to build on this investigation, industry professionals striving to revitalize interest toward relevant professions, career counselors’ vocational decision guidance tactics and strategies and individuals envisioning a prosperous hospitality career.

The paper enhances and enriches our conceptual knowledge of a relatively barren landscape, investigating the behavior of mature employees’ choice of a hospitality career.

While colleges have perceived the importance and growth within the tourism and hospitality industry, students in the industry have mixed feelings about career options that are available to them. The purpose of this paper is to discuss factors that underpin students ' perception of career options in the tourism and hospitality industry and to make recommendations for other developing countries.

A 21-variable structured questionnaire was used to solicit response from 260 Ghanaian tourism and hospitality students. The data was coded and keyed into MINITAB and SPSS statistical processing software. Various multivariate techniques such as Eigen-analysis, correlation analysis and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. Secondary data was also obtained for student records.

The study revealed that, industry-person congeniality, social benefit factors, opportunity for professional development, and job competitiveness, were crucial in determining students ' choice of career options. Other factors include, career opportunities in tourism and hospitality industry were more easily attainable than in many other sectors of the economy; remuneration in the industry is grossly inadequate.

A limitation of the study is the use of HTM students of one university. Therefore, replication of this study in other tourism and hospitality institutions of higher in other developing countries is strongly recommended to harmonize the findings of this study.

Several implications were found including: getting students to be made aware of the career and career development opportunities available in each sector; educational institutions should partner with industry to provide internship and employment opportunities, that would encourage students to have a better perception of the industry; curb the escalating trend of “brain drain” away for the industry, while the industry should reorganize itself to correct the negative perception of low wages and high turnover.

The study was an original primary study that surveyed students at two tertiary level institutions to determine their perception of the career options available to them. The lessons are of value to stakeholders of Ghana ' s tourism and hospitality industry and relevance to those in other developing countries.