This thesis explored careers within Australian tourism with the aim of developing a
model of influences on career development in the tourism industry. As tourism is still
an emerging profession, careers have yet to be clearly defined and career paths are not
easily identifiable. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that the industry is prone
to high turnover, low retention rates, is often viewed as a low skilled industry and has
difficulty attracting employees with a view to serious career development.
While some research into careers into hotel management is available, in depth career
studies in the tourism industry have yet to emerge. This thesis addresses this gap in
the literature and provides industry stakeholders with information to assist in human
resource management and policy development.
The researcher drew finding from an electronic survey that was designed from
information collected from an exploratory study conducted by the researcher, from
literature available on both career development and research on the tourism industry,
and from earlier research projects. This electronic survey was designed to collect
primarily qualitative data and was disseminated to the Australian tourism industry.
Results from this study suggest that careers in the tourism industry are influenced by a
variety of mentoring relationships. Both formal education and on-the-job training was
found to be increasingly important for those wanting to advance in the industry and
remaining mobile between jobs, between organisations, within industries and
geographically was advantageous. A motivation to work in tourism and a "passion"
for the industry was found to be a strong influence on career development in the
current study.
This study should add to our understanding of careers in Australian tourism and, more
specifically to our understanding of the role of formal education and on-the-job
training in career development and the perceived value of such training. The current
study reinforces previous knowledge of high levels of mobility within the tourism
industry and suggests the need to change job, organisation, industry or geographical
location is influential on career development in Australian tourism. In addition, the
results suggest that although structured mentorship programs are currently unavailable
to many in the tourism industry, mentorship in the form of informal and networking
relationships assists career development.
While this thesis has contributed to our understanding of career development in the
tourism industry, because of inevitable limitations with the sample obtain for this
study, it would be useful to replicate this survey with other sectors of the tourism, to
explore influences on careers in tourism in other countries, to investigate gender
issues in the industry and to further explore the influences of education, mobility and
mentorship.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219543 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Ayres, Helen, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Languages, International Studies & Tourism |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Helen Ayres |
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