Tourism career perceptions among Chinese undergraduate students
         Tourism career perceptions and implications, a 
         case study of Chinese undergraduate students
         Suosheng Wang
                                                       suwang@iupui.edu 
         ABSTRACT
         This study examines undergraduate students’ perceptions of careers in tourism in the context 
         of China. Based on the quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study examines the appli-
         cability of Kusluvan and Kusluvan’s (2000) perceptual model by assessing Chinese students’ 
         career perceptions. Chinese students’ perceptions of tourism careers, according to this study, 
         are generally moderate, prompting tourism education providers in China to provide more ac-
         curate information about the status of tourism industry, and more custom-made advising to 
         students. In addition, new factors which are important to Chinese students were identified, 
         suggesting that, when examining students’ perceptions in different countries, modifications 
         of the perceptual model are necessary to reflect a country’s specific features in tourism edu-
         cation.  
         Keywords: career perceptions, tourism undergraduate students, China
         INTRODUCTION 
         The scope of tourism education has been expanding rapidly in terms of offerings of edu-
         cation and training programs, however, tourism education providers should not ignore the 
         importance of understanding tourism students’ perceptions of their career commitments in 
         the tourism industry. For administrators of education and training programs, understanding 
         students’ perceptions of students is central for them to attract and recruit students, which 
         would enable educators to design more interesting and effective courses, and to some extent, 
         prevent them from future job dissatisfaction. Additionally, such understanding will make 
         the tourism employers more conscientious of the industry’s characteristics, which can either 
         positively or negatively influence students’ attitudes toward employment, and in turn, the at-
         tractiveness of the industry. 
         The literature review of tourism education indicates that studies of tourism students’ career 
         perceptions in the 1990s were mainly focused on high school or secondary school students 
         (e.g. Ross, 1991; Ross, 1992a; Ross, 1992b; Ross, 1994; Getz, 1994; Airey & Frontistis, 
         1997). Since then, more attention has been paid to undergraduate students’ career perceptions 
         (Kusluvan and Kusluvan, 2000; Jenkins, 2001; Brien, 2004; Harkison, 2004; Akis Roney & 
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         Suosheng Wang
         Öztin, 2007; Barron et al., 2007; Richardson, 2009; Sibson, 2011; King & Hang, 2011). To 
         assess students’ career perceptions, Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000) develop the multi-dimen-
         sional and multi-item attitude scale, consisting of nine measurement dimensions. This scale 
         has been since then applied by other scholars (e.g., Aksu & Koksal, 2005; Richardson, 2010). 
         It is noted that most of the career-perception studies have been focused on undergraduate 
         students studying tourism in European countries or Australia/New Zealand, however, few 
         studies have been conducted in the other parts of the world. It is considered that more studies 
         conducted in other countries are necessary to explore the complexity of this topic, as well 
         as the compliance of Kusluvan and Kusluvan’s perceptual model in the context of the other 
         countries. 
         Prior to 1978, China’s tourism education was non-existent. By 1986, there were only four-
         teen tertiary level institutes offering courses related to tourism, together with four tourism 
         secondary schools, producing a  total of 3,896 graduates (2,426 at tertiary level and 1,470 at 
         secondary level) (Zhang, 1987). As of 2011, there were 2,208 institutes (1,115 tertiary level 
         institutes and 1,049 secondary schools) offering tourism education, with a total enrollment 
         of 1,083,300 (599,800 enrolled at tertiary level and 483,400 at secondary level) (CNTA, 
         2012). China’s early tourism education studies have mainly introduced the overall situation 
         of China’s tourism higher education, and discussed some of the problems facing China’s 
         tourism education (Chen, 1990, Zhao, 1991, Lew & Yu, 1995, Xiao, 2000). Very few stud-
         ies, especially empirical studies, however, have been conducted in terms of current Chinese 
         students’ career perceptions of tourism (Jiang & Tribe, 2009). 
         To better understand Chinese students’ perceptions of industry commitment, this study adopts 
         both quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate how career choice in tourism is 
         perceived by students in China guided by under the guideline of Kusluvan and Kusluvan’s 
         (2000) perceptual model. 
         THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 
         The scale developed by Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000) in the study of Turkish tourism stu-
         dents has been widely adopted by other researchers in exploring tourism students’ career 
         perceptions. Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000) employed a multi-dimensional attitude scale 
         in their study of Turkish tourism students, which addresses nine dimensions including na-
         ture of work, social status, industry-person congeniality, physical working conditions, pay/
         fringe benefits, promotion, co-workers, managers and commitment to the industry. Over the 
         past several years, the multi-dimensional scale has been adopted by other researchers. For 
         instance, Aksu and Koksal (2005) tested the scale in a study of tourism students’ attitudes 
         and perceptions; Akis Roney and Öztin’s (2007) questionnaire was developed primarily by 
         integrating questions and statements used in the previous studies (e.g. Kusluvan & Kusluvan, 
         2000; Aksu & Koksal, 2005); Richardson (2010a) tested and applied Kusluvan and Kus-
         luvan’s multi-dimensional attitude scale in an Australian context, however, only the Cron-
         bach’s alpha was used to test the dimensions’ internal consistency and reliability. Among the 
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         Tourism career perceptions among Chinese undergraduate students
         nine scales in Richardson’s study, five dimensions’ Cronbach’s alphas did not reach the ad-
         equate level of 0.70 as suggested by Nunnally (1978), the lowest .388 for the scale of ‘physi-
         cal working conditions.’ Some other studies applied the scales used in the studies of career 
         perceptions of teaching and nursing. For instance, Richardson (2010b) used a questionnaire 
         which was adapted from Kyriacou and Coulthard’s (2000), which examined undergraduates’ 
         views of teaching as a career choice. Richardson (2010b, p. 3) argued that whilst this instru-
         ment analyzed the teaching profession, it was seen as the best instrument to obtain this data 
         as no such instrument was found for investigating important career factors in the tourism and 
         hospitality industry. 
         Some tourism scholars also tried from different perspectives to explore tourism students’ ca-
         reer perceptions. For instance, in studying the event and sport tourism students’ career percep-
         tions, Sibson (2011) introduced the career perception measurement scale originally applied 
         in the disciplines of nursing and teaching, meanwhile generating some extra items perceived 
         to be specific only in the context of event, sport and recreation industries. Items developed 
         in studying career perceptions of teaching and nursing, according to Sibson (2011), were 
         grouped into three categories: extrinsic (referring to aspects such as job market, security, mon-
         ey and incentives), intrinsic (reflecting themes of personal satisfaction and having an interest 
         in the career itself), and altruistic (concerning and influencing others and improving society).
         The review of literature indicates that, for one thing, tourism scholars are exploring ways 
         to comprehensively assess students’ perceptions of careers in tourism; for the other, while 
         Kusluvan and Kusluvan’s (2000) perceptual model is considered a popular tool in the field 
         of tourism education, it is suggested that the vitality of the model relies on its openness for 
         modifications and adaptations when applied in different cultural contexts. This case study is 
         designed to explore and assess students’ career perceptions in China based on the dimensions 
         defined by Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000).
         RESEARCH METHODS 
         To assess Chinese students’ perceptions of tourism careers, a questionnaire was designed 
         which contains three sections. One section is about students’ characteristics such as gender, 
         work experience, year of study, place of origin, study major, and willingness of major. The 
         second section asks students about their career perceptions, based on the 32 items mainly 
         based on Kusluvan and Kusluvan’s measurement scale (Kusluvan & Kusluvan, 2000; Aksu 
         & Koksal, 2005; Richard, 2010a & 2010b). Responses to the 32 items are measured with a 
         5-point Likert scale, where 1 = strongly disagree, 3 = neutral, and 5 = strongly agree. The 
         third section is composed of three open-ended questions: One question asks respondents to 
         list three important factors motivating them to choose the career, the second question asks 
         respondents to list three negative factors, which may impact them not to choose the career 
         after graduation, and the last question asks the respondents to express and explain their special 
         concerns about future career choice in tourism.
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                  Suosheng Wang
                  The survey was conducted in a tourism college of a popular university in South China. The 
                  survey was conducted in September and October, 2012; a total of 645 usable surveys were 
                  collected, indicating a high response rate of 94%. The data were put into SPSS for data 
                  analysis; descriptive statistics (i.e., frequency and mean, dispersion of data) on the 32 items 
                  was run to obtain the basic descriptive information of the career perception items. Content 
                  analysis was employed to analyze the students’ all responses to the open-ended questions; 
                  basically, it is the method used in analyzing documents, records, or anything in textual form 
                  (Henderson, 2006). The content analysis followed the steps as suggested by Strauss and 
                  Corbin (1998) and Boyatzis (1998), include creating interview transcription, reducing raw 
                  information, identifying patterns within participants, comparing patterns across participants, 
                  creating a code, developing a selective code and determining the reliability of the code.
                  FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 
                  STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TOURISM CAREERS 
                  As shown in Table 1, overall, the mean ratings of the items range from 2.29 to 4.01. The 
                  item with the biggest mean is ‘tourism career provides good opportunity to contact foreign-
                  ers and cultures’ (4.01), which is the only one with its mean exceeding or equal to 4.0. The 
                  second most positively rated item is ‘career provides intellectual challenge’ (3.83), followed 
                  by ‘tourism employees are generally uneducated (R)’ (3.74).
                  Table 1. Descriptive Statistics
                   
                                                                            N         Min      Max       Mean       Std. dev.   Rank
                  Personal interest                                                                                  
                  Tourism provides good opportunity to 
                  contact foreigners and cultures                           643       1.00     5.00      4.0124     .77329      1
                  Career provides intellectual challenge                    645       1.00     5.00      3.8372     .85239      2
                  Meeting new people is pleasant experience                 643       1.00     5.00      3.6967     .86994      4
                  Tourism jobs are enjoyable                                645       1.00     5.00      3.5597     .840504     9
                  I can have many opportunities to take 
                  more overseas trips                                       644       1.00     5.00      3.4674     .90128      11
                  I get pleasure by working in tourism                      644       1.00     5.00      3.4550     .80791      12
                  Tourism jobs are interesting to me                        645       1.00     5.00      3.4264     .92729      14
                  Social status                                                                                      
                  I talk to my relatives/friends with pride                 644       1.00     5.00      2.9922     .97795      22
                  Working in tourism is respected                           644       1.00     5.00      2.9037     .89237      23
                  People working in tourism are 
                  not valued in society (R)*                                642       1.00     5.00      2.8925     .95743      25
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