Abstract
Destination tourists are a critical stakeholder for developing sustainable tourism. Exchange students as tourists have become a growing segment of the international tourism market. Students undertake courses, internships, or exchange programs at an overseas university for a period of time. Student exchange programs (SEPs) through educational tourism offer exchange students ample learning opportunities from local universities, industries, and other stakeholders. The purpose of this research was to assess the relationships between experiential benefits (including practical business benefits, rural environmental benefits, and personal sociocultural benefits), professional identity, career choice intentions, and support for educational tourism via SEPs. This study surveyed students from Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and others who attended exchange programs in the field of agriculture in Taiwan and other host countries during the last 15 years and are back in their respective countries. Primary data on exchange students were collected using an online questionnaire survey with a sample size of 326 respondents. The results indicated that professional identity has a full intermediating influence on relationships among experiential benefits, career choice intentions, and support for educational tourism via SEPs. The findings are expected to contribute to the understanding of agricultural students’ SEP behaviors, and to provide suggestions for planning and managing relevant policy to encourage more students to join SEPs overseas.
Highlights
Taiwan’s agriculture has seen major structural changes within the last few decades
The purpose of this research was to assess the relationships between experiential benefits, professional identity, career choice intentions, and support for educational tourism via Student exchange programs (SEPs)
The six constructs include a total of nine items of experiential benefits, a six-item scale of professional identity, a three-item scale of support for educational tourism via SEPs, and a three-item scale of career choice intention
Summary
Taiwan’s agriculture has seen major structural changes within the last few decades. The rapid development of the information technology and manufacturing industries has meant that the traditional agriculture sector has lost its former importance. The number of workers in agriculture declined from 1.6 million in 1978 to 557,000 in 2017 [1] In response to these new circumstances, changing food consumption patterns, market liberalization, and the consequent increased competition, policy-makers have shifted their focus from the cultivation of traditional staple crops to the production of higher-value and consumer-oriented commodities. This approach seeks to exploit products’ market potential and Taiwan’s technological advantages. Many high schools and universities have decided, due to declining enrollment, to close down their agricultural programs This has resulted in the agriculture industry having to adapt rapidly to sustain its long-term development. Even college students have demonstrated a similar lack of knowledge and understanding about international agricultural issues [4]
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