Abstract:
To enhance the service quality of the Tourism industry the government, introduce
Tourism and Hospitality Education to the Post-secondary education under the
Thirteen years guaranteed education program. However, Tourism industry faced a
problem of retains educated persons within the industry. It is vital to investigate about
tourism learners‟ attitudes and behavior to understand the problems and find solution
for the betterment of the industry. Thus the main objective of the research study is to
identify the major motivation, expectation, perception and students‟ preference in
learning Tourism and Hospitality Education among Thirteen years guaranteed
education following students. Research study conducted in southern province due to
the high Tourism traffic occurring area in Sri Lanka. The research employed
quantitative approach and use questionnaire as data collection tool. Among 227
number of population researcher derived 140 sample for the study. Further this study
is conducted as survey research. Both Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)
and Microsoft Excel used to analyze the data and derive a conclusion from the study.
According to the analysis the major motivational factors to select Tourism and
Hospitality education are willingness to work in this industry as well as prefer to
provide best service to the guests. The students expectation aspect acquire operational
knowledge in the industry as well as expected to these studies are affected to explore
future career choices. Then major perceptions of the students are learning from well
qualified teachers who can give appropriate answers for the student‟s questions.
Further students‟ perspective they require more activities in tourism and Hospitality
field than the theoretical aspect. Under the preferences category, students‟ future
career choices are Hotel sector, travel agency fields. As well as the students preferred
subjects are the Hotel management, Tourism management, Aviation studies etc.
However, the findings are assisting to conclude the clear picture of the Tourism and
Hospitality sector and its short comings and identifying the problems and
investigating answers for the society.
