School and Hotel Integration: Practices and experiences from stakeholders

This paper describes an exploratory study of stakeholder feedback on a Hotel Integration project from the perspective of students, HR personnel working in a teaching hotel, and subject teachers. Hotel Integration was one of the principal components in the delivery of a program entitled “Human Resources Management (HRM) in the Tourism and Hotel Industry.” The design and implementation focused on promoting student-centered learning. Data were collected from students, teachers and HR staff, and qualitative analysis undertaken to identify similarities and differences in their views. The paper presents dendrograms representing these views and discusses participants' experiences of the project. In the analysis, feedback was classified into four categories; Planning, Implementation and Management of the Project, Project Evaluation; and Consideration and Improvement of Future Learning Activities. The results generally showed that the confidentiality of hotel data and large class sizes were the major issues affecting the design and implementation of the integration project. The paper closes by suggesting recommendations and considerations for future projects. For example, the student-centered learning approach could be further explained and promoted to students in order to enhance its popularity and general acceptance.