The Three Waves of Internationalisation Sweeping Thailand's Tourism and Hospitality Education: Current Progress and Future Prospects

Abstract

In this article, the context of international education and various aspects of internationalising education from regional and global perspectives are discussed. These situations have significant strategic implications for the pursuit of international tourism and hospitality education in Thailand. The main objective of the article is to explore the various approaches to how tourism and hospitality programs in Thailand have started to internationalise themselves. It also examines the existing dual/joint programs that have been started, and discuss how Thailand has looked to “import” western courses, and how it now intends to “export” them to its neighbours. This article provides a picture of the current state of affairs which indicate that extensive and various forms of joint activities are being undertaken between higher education institutions within and outside Thailand in the development of tourism courses and programmes. Despite these positive endeavours, it is obvious that monitoring and evaluation in these areas needs to be further conducted. On the whole, this paper offers a prominent preliminary evaluation, which reveals that Thailand tourism and hospitality education institutions are making impressive efforts to internationalise tourism higher education.