Education research in tourism: A longitudinal study of 77 articles between 2008 and 2017

Abstract

This study adopted a longitudinal approach to examine 77 articles on tourism education research published in the Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education between 2008 and 2017. Content analysis was used to analyze the profile, theory, method, and theme of these articles on tourism education. The majority of the articles were atheoretical, but a growing tendency for researchers to adopt theories from multiple disciplines to investigate educational issues in tourism is observable. Quantitative studies dominated throughout the period. The analysis of statistical techniques denotes that this research area is advancing toward sophistication. Teaching and learning methods, learning motivation, and course evaluation were identified as three major themes. Discussion is offered and suggestions posed based on these findings, in the hope of constantly improving the research quality of studies on tourism education.