Tourism education and curriculum design: A time for consolidation and review?

This paper seeks to examine the growth and development of tourism education within Great Britain, with specific reference to the situation in England and Wales. This is a subject that has received relatively scant attention since the publication of a number of seminal papers produced in the mid to late 1990’s and early C20th. The paper reviews how tourism education has developed from relatively humble origins to that of a subject taught in a wide variety of education institutions. It examines what programmes seek to achieve in terms of knowledge skills development and preparing students to meet the labour needs of the tourism industry. It also reflects on where tourism education is going in terms of courses, course philosophy, levels of study, subject content and teaching and learning strategies.A number of key themes or issues will be highlighted all central to the thinking of the curriculum planner. These include an analysis of curriculum models, the importance of developing academic vocational and key transferable skills and the need to add value and increase employability. The paper concludes by examining the future of tourism education in an increasingly mature educational market. Here the development of the new 14–19 diplomas in travel and tourism and employer-led foundation degrees are discussed and the implications for curriculum development in higher education broached.