Abstract
The international tourism system has deeply undergone structural changes in the last decades which not remain outside the subsystem higher education in tourism, especially in the European case. This article has two objectives: firstly, describes the European higher education area and the objectives, skills and subjects taught in the main Spanish universities that offer higher education in tourism. On the other hand, in the light of knowledge that researchers' descriptive models, provide experience of the implementation of European credit and thorough a deeply review of the literature on the topic higher education in tourism, to propose strategies that will enable other tourism higher education systems approach to the European reality. These policy proposals are aimed at agents and elements from higher education in tourism subsystem and they specifically include: the institutions providing education in tourism, the curriculum, the teaching methods, teachers and students.
Highlights
According to WWTC (2009), and despite the situation of global recession, the international tourism industry employed more than 235 million people worldwide in 2009; it is expected that this figure increases to 303,019,000 jobs in 2010 and that in 2020 1 in 10.9 jobs will be generated by the tourism industry
The structure of the article is based on the following pillars: first, it describes the European higher education area; second, it describes the methodology used to design the formats for higher education in tourism in the Spanish university and it presents the results obtained in terms of objectives, skills and subjects; third, we present the conclusions; fourth, strategic proposals are presented, limitations and lines of research
In the group of optional subjects this value is about 6%, while the other two cases is very similar and less than 3%. This is a logical fact if it is taken into account that the various universities tend to specialize more in one or another area of knowledge due to their history, economic environment and the peculiarities of the local labour market that the supply of graduates is directed to. In this paragraph there are offered the principal conclusions of the investigation, grouped in two big blocks: general conclusions or relative to the subsystem higher education in tourism and specific or relative to the subsystem higher education in tourism in Spain
Summary
According to WWTC (2009), and despite the situation of global recession, the international tourism industry employed more than 235 million people worldwide in 2009; it is expected that this figure increases to 303,019,000 jobs in 2010 and that in 2020 1 in 10.9 jobs will be generated by the tourism industry. The expectations of future growth are especially favorable for Brazil, waiting for a strong impulse in his numbers with the celebration of the World Cup of Soccer in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. These data, reflecting the international economic importance of tourism, are due to multiple causes, and there is no doubt that one of the most important ones, is related to the major structural changes undertaken, by the international tourism industry, and by the whole international tourist system. The said subsystem, in Europe, is undergoing a process of adaptation and change to the new demands of a global stage characterized by important changes in the labour market, an increasing global competition, continuous technological advances, changes in demand patterns — students want a high probability of employability and employers rap — Rio de Janeiro 44(5):1259-266, Set./out. 2010 want employees with a high level of training — and by the requirements of the European higher education area
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