Tourism and hospitality education in high school: A lifelong learning approach

Abstract

There is little recognition of the significance or impact of a lifelong learning approach in tourism and hospitality (T&H) education in high school, mainly because nearly all discussions on the subject focuses on the higher education level. Nevertheless, schools can encourage students to become lifelong learners. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to bring together discussions on lifelong learning and T&H education at the secondary level by providing a bibliometric, systematic, and integrative literature review on T&H education in high school. The bibliometric review selected 40 papers on the topic published in 17 international journals. Then, the systematic review classified the publications in eight thematic categories. Lastly, the integrative review evaluated the research’s evolution at different decades. The study concluded that research topics on T&H education in high school became more diverse from 2010, indicating that it might be in its initial phase. Furthermore, research in traditional schools surpassed the vocational institutions’ ones, meaning that tourism and hospitality can integrate regular curricula more broadly, not only with a training perspective. Finally, the lifelong learning approach for T&H education in high school can introduce vocational and critical skills and foster learning experiences.