Useful Online Resources and Educational Tools for Teaching English for Tourism and Hospitality

Abstract

Tourism is a branch of economy with the vigorous growth whose influence penetrates society, politics, culture and the most importantly the economy. Approximately 100 million employees are estimated to work in the modern leisure and experience industry. Foreign languages competence is one of the key skills in this industry. The rapid advancement of technology has both influenced language learning and customers experience in tourism industry. This paper aims to discuss the influence of technology on these two aspects in courses for English for Tourism and Hospitality. Needs analyses conducted in this sector have proven and highlighted the importance of domain content digital genres in English for Specific Purposes. Hence, the focus of this paper will be placed on useful online resources and educational tools that can be used in English Language Teaching in the field of Tourism and Hospitality. Online resources in English that will be discusses are: Booking.com, Travel Agencies Websites and National Geographic Short Videos while online educational tools are: Social Networks (Facebook), Padlet and Duolingo. The engagement of these online resources and tools should enable Tourism English attendees during their course to learn to navigate and perform in digital environment and to use these resources and tools at their future job posts.