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A comparative study of hospitality and

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH
Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/jtr.447
A Comparative Study of Hospitality and
Tourism Graduates in Australia and
Hong Kong
Brian King1,*, Bob McKercher2 and Robert Waryszak1
1
School of Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing, Victoria University
2
School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
ABSTRACT
This paper evaluates the career experiences
and perceptions of graduates from the
School of Hotel and Tourism Management
at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
and the School of Hospitality, Tourism and
Marketing at Victoria University in
Melbourne, Australia towards the
programmes that they undertook. The two
cohorts of graduates exhibited broadly
similar career histories and expressed
similar attitudes towards the quality,
strengths and weaknesses of their respective
programmes. In both cases, female students
dominate the graduate cohort and about
half of the respondents were found to have
left the tourism or hospitality field within
35 years after graduation. Graduates
believe that their general business and
general education subjects play a stronger
role in acquiring their first and current jobs
than specialist tourism, hotel management
and food service subjects. The findings
highlight the challenge facing the university
sector in attempting to balance the desire to
provide a broadly grounded liberal
education with the student desire for
practical training. Copyright 2003 John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 14 February 2003; Revised 1 August 2003; Accepted
8 August 2003
*Correspondence to: B. King, School of Hospitality,
Tourism and Marketing, Victoria University, Po Box 14428
MC, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 8001.
E-mail: brian.king@vu.edu.au
Keywords: tourism education, career path
INTRODUCTION
T
he provision of degree-level hospitality
and tourism education is a fairly recent
phenomenon. Although some examples
of programme development in Europe
and North America occurred in the early years
follow in World War 2, programmes were not
established within the AsiaPacific region until
much later. Australia was one of the early
adopters with the first hospitality degree pro-
gramme offered in the mid-1970s and the
equivalent course in tourism in the late-1970s.
More widespread provision across Australia
did not get underway until the late 1980s.
Characteristic of the slower emergence of
programmes in developing countries, large-
scale educational provision for hospitality and
tourism in countries such as China occurred
relatively late, with the main growth having
occurred since the late 1980s.
According to the World Tourism Organiza-
tion, the AsiaPacific region has recorded the
worlds fastest tourism growth rates since
1975 (World Tourism Organization, 1998a).
The rapidity of this growth has raised a
number of concerns about the adequacy of
human resource provision both regionally and
within specific countries (World Tourism
Organization, 1998b) and the efficacy of the
tertiary sector in providing quality graduates
for the industry. Although some published
research has identified industry needs, rela-
tively little work has examined graduate per-
ceptions of the quality and relevance of the
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
410
education that they received. This paper
attempts to address the gap by comparing the
views of graduates from two of the longest
established providers of hospitality and
tourism education in the region, namely The
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)
and Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne,
Australia. These two universities have the
advantage of established alumni databases
and a large number of hospitality and tourism
graduates. The student catchment areas of the
two institutions are also contrasting and com-
plementary because they cover, respectively,
an English-speaking part of the region (Aus-
tralia) and a former British Colony, now part
of China, where the student population is eth-
nically Chinese but the language of instruction
is English. Such distinctions allow for a com-
parison of the strength of Western style educa-
tion in a Western/Eastern context.
SCHOOL OF HOTEL AND TOURISM
MANAGEMENT, THE HONG KONG
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
Hospitality and tourism programmes were
introduced into The Hong Kong Polytechnic
during the era when Hong Kong had a binary
education system. The PolyU began granting
diplomas in hospitality management in the
late 1970s. By the early 1990s it was offering
undergraduate degrees in tourism, catering
and hotel management as well as diplomas.
The elimination of the binary system of edu-
cation saw the creation of The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University with a commensurate
broadening of the then Department into a
School of Hotel and Tourism Management
(HTM). The School of HTM now offers a
full range of qualifications from subdegree
higher diplomas to PhDs. The annual govern-
ment funded undergraduate degree intake is
about 70 students with another 120 or so full-
time students entering the higher diploma
programme across the three disciplines. In
addition, the School of HTM offers a variety
of fee paying programmes, including full-
time and part-time conversion awards which
involve up-grading higher diplomas to degree
level. The Master of Science (MSc) degree is
offered in Hong Kong and also at outpost
campuses in China. Overall about 900 students
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
B. King, B. McKercher and R. Waryszak
are enrolled across the full spectrum of award
courses.
The main undergraduate programme is a 3-
year honours degree, which incorporates two
periods of compulsory paid industry place-
ment. The first 810 week placement occurs
between the first and second years of study.
Students are offered a choice for their second
placement between the second and third years
of study of another 12 week placement or a
48 week internship. The availability of an
optional year-long placement has occurred
over the past 34 years. About 50% of eligible
students now opt for the longer placement,
including most hotel management students.
Tourism and food service students tend to opt
for the shorter placement.
Virtually all on-campus students come
from Hong Kong, although the School of HTM
launched a full-time MSc programme in 2002
targeted at international students. Interest-
ingly, there is no tradition of attracting inter-
national students to Hong Kong and the
Territory has been seen primarily as a source
of students for overseas universities. The new
MSc is reputed to be the first such initiative
ever in the Hong Kong university sector.
Currently a number of visa and cost barriers
inhibit Mainland Chinese students from
enrolling in Hong Kong universities. To over-
come the latter obstacle, the university sector
has established a number of outpost campuses
throughout China, generally providing fee
paying postgraduate programmes.
Despite its return to Chinese sovereignty
in 1997, Hong Kong is dramatically different
from China as a place for study. It is classified
as a Special Administrative Region (SAR)
within the Peoples Republic of China and
enjoys a high degree of autonomy with the
capacity to set its own laws, issue its own cur-
rency and generally administer its own affairs,
including education. The Hong Kong educa-
tion system is steeped in the British tradition
and most students seeking University entry
undertake English advanced (A) levels and
ordinary (O) levels. Officially Hong Kong is
bilingual, and one of the distinctive features of
higher education in the wider Chinese context
is that English is the language of instruction.
This tradition is expected to continue into the
foreseeable future because the Hong Kong
Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
Comparison of Australian and Hong Kong Graduates
Government views English language skills as
being essential to retaining the Territorys
status as a global business centre. Since the
return to the Motherland, students are also
required to receive formal instruction in
Putonghua (Mandarin) as part of a Territory-
wide policy of producing graduates who are
trilingual (English, Cantonese and Putonghua)
and bi-literate (English and Chinese).
THE SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY,
TOURISM AND MARKETING,
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Victoria Universitys predecessor institutions
introduced a Diploma of Hospitality in 1962
and subsequently a Bachelor of Business (in
1974). An undergraduate Tourism Degree was
first offered in 1978, followed by a Masters
Degree in 1988. The School of Hospitality,
Tourism and Marketing now has approxi-
mately 1000 students enrolled in its
undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
Approximately 40% of enrolments are in mar-
keting degrees and its various combinations,
with hospitality and tourism degrees account-
ing for about 60% of its total full-time equiva-
lent student population. At undergraduate
level, all Bachelor of Business students study-
ing for a hospitality and/or tourism degree
undertake a 4-year ordinary degree with the
third year consisting of a compulsory period of
paid industry experience. At undergraduate
level most students are from the home state of
Victoria, but at postgraduate level (where most
are undertaking masters degree) over half the
enrolments are made up of international stu-
dents. Approximately 30 students are enrolled
in PhD programmes. In addition to its on-
shore programmes the School offers a Bachelor
of Business degree in Marketing and Interna-
tional Tourism in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
University provision of hospitality and
tourism programmes in Australia is highly
competitive, with over 30 Australian Universi-
ties now involved, including seven in Victoria.
Partly in response to this competitive environ-
ment, Victoria University has developed a
range of combined degrees linking hospitality
with accounting, human resources and mar-
keting and tourism with law, recreation and
events. Such combinations have influenced the
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
411
perception of career opportunities by allowing
graduates to keep their options open. At the
time of writing, Victoria University offers an
honours degree option, in marketing but not in
hospitality or tourism. The school has pro-
duced over 2000 graduates.
CONTEXT
There is a small amount of published research
that has examined tertiary tourism and hospi-
tality education provision and wider educa-
tion and training needs within the AsiaPacific
region. King (1990), for example, published a
comparative study of the evolution of tourism
in Australia, New Zealand and UK and also
compared the development of hospitality and
tourism education in Oceania (including but
not confined to Australia and New Zealand)
and in the South Pacific (King, 1996). More
recently, McKercher (2000) examined the
future prospects for tourism education in
Australia and depicted an environment char-
acterised by an oversupply of university places
and declining student demand. Zhang et al.
(2001) analysed the learning needs of mainland
Chinese tourism academics and identified the
future challenges for educational provision
generally. A recent edited text of Tourism in
China includes a chapter by Zhang on educa-
tion and research provision in China (Lew
et al., 2002).
Jayawardena (2001) has examined educa-
tional provision in developing countries with
an emphasis on the development of hospital-
ity management. He concluded that the chal-
lenges and problems confronting hospitality
educators in developing countries differ from
the experiences of their more developed coun-
terparts. He identified understanding multi-
ethnic and multi-national student mentalities
as key challenges for educators involved
in international hospitality management
education. The two Schools involved in the
present study face the challenge of contempo-
rary multi-ethnicity from different circum-
stances. Victoria University is Australias most
ethnically diverse University and enrolls a
large number of international students each
year. On the other hand, although PolyUs
student cohort is almost entirely comprised of
Hong Kong Chinese, the School of Hotel and
Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
412
Tourism Management has an international
staff, with its academic cohort drawn from
over 15 countries.
Tourism and hospitality education providers
face some unique challenges. Gender is an
important consideration. In most countries
across the region, females outnumber males in
terms of both current student populations and
numbers of hospitality and tourism graduates.
A comprehensive UK study by Doherty et al.
(2001, p. 6) reported that hospitality work
practices are adversely affecting the career
development of a number of female managers
and that relatively few women progress to
senior management roles. The views of exist-
ing graduates about barriers to advancement
will be useful in guiding both educators and
future graduates. Li and Leung (2001) studied
female managers (many of them graduates) in
Singapore and concluded that the major barri-
ers for female managers are not corporate prac-
tices or policies, but rather cultural and societal
sanctions. For the purpose of the present study
this was an interesting finding, given the pre-
dominant Chinese population in Singapore.
Although they were a somewhat inciden-
tal component of the present study, gender
issues are certainly worthy of further investi-
gation given the continuing failure of many
female graduates to progress to general
manager positions in hotels and associated
tourism operations.
Few previous studies have examined gradu-
ate career paths and the effectiveness of
programmes from the student perspective.
McKercher et al. (1995) found that over half
the tourism graduates from Charles Sturt
University in Australia were employed outside
tourism within 5 years of graduation. Gradu-
ates who did remain within the sector had typ-
ically started out in poorly remunerated
positions and had changed jobs frequently in
the early years after graduation in order to
develop their careers. Although starting wages
were low, it should be acknowledged that
within 35 years, students were earning an
average wage for University graduates with
similar experience. The motivation for the
present study stemmed from an interest on the
part of the authors to extend the examination
of graduate experiences from a single institute
in a single country to an international compar-
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
B. King, B. McKercher and R. Waryszak
ison. Although still a case study approach to a
considerable degree, the study may allow
some wider observations to be made about
international and non-institution specific
experience.
OBJECTIVES AND METHOD
The present study examines the views of hos-
pitality and tourism university graduates who
had undertaken their courses of study in
Melbourne, Australia and Hong Kong, China.
The objectives of the study were:
(1) to assess the career progression of gradu-
ates, including the levels of responsibility
achieved, working conditions encountered
and incidence of attrition;
(2) to evaluate the extent to which graduates
believe that the student experience pro-
vided a thorough preparation for immedi-
ate employment and for professional life
more generally;
(3) to identify the learning needs of graduates
and the extent to which institutions can
respond to their professional and educa-
tional needs.
The study was undertaken in two stages.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University hospi-
tality and tourism graduates were surveyed by
mail in late 1999. The target population con-
sisted of those who had graduated since 1988.
In 2000, a similar questionnaire was sent to all
Victoria University hospitality and tourism
graduates listed on the alumni database that
was established in 1986. The questionnaire was
a modified version of an instrument used some
years earlier in a study by McKercher et al.
(1995), with minor adaptations made to the
instrument to accommodate the characteristics
of the different target audiences.
In total 443 graduates responded to the
PolyU survey. This group included graduates
who had completed diploma-level studies as
well as those who had completed degree-level
studies. As the focus of the present study is
exclusively on the degree graduates, the subset
of Hong Kong diplomats was eliminated,
leaving a useful sample of 220 respondents.
A total of 107 graduates responded to the
Victoria University survey. The relatively low
response rate was largely attributable to the
Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
Comparison of Australian and Hong Kong Graduates 413

complexity of the questionnaire, with one
respondent commenting that it took over 2
hours to complete the survey. Although the rel-
atively small sizes are a limitation, the sample
size is still large enough to enable comparisons
to be undertaken between the two cohorts.
The period of graduation covered by the two
samples is also somewhat different. Of the VU
sample, 53.3% of the respondents graduated
prior to 1995 whereas only 15% of the Hong
Kong sample graduated during this earlier
period. The longer period in the workforce
among the Australian cohort is likely to have
influenced career stage development, includ-
ing the type of position currently held and the
scale of attrition from employment in the hos-
pitality and tourism sectors.
A further cultural limitation also must be
acknowledged. Cross-cultural studies examin-
ing the effectiveness of Likert-scaled questions
administered to different populations have
found that Western respondents are more
likely to express extreme scores, whereas the
scores from Asian respondents are more likely
to be grouped closely around the mean (Yeh
et al., 1998; Ap, 2000). As a consequence, it is
difficult to compare results directly (i.e.
through independent sample t-texts) as differ-
ences noted may be reflective of cultural biases
in how questions are answered, rather than of
real differences between respondent groups.
To overcome this problem, responses to Likert-
scaled questions are ranked ordered by mean
score, thereby highlighting the relative impor-
tance of answers within and between cohorts.
The questionnaire consisted of four main
components and involved a mixture of open
and closed questions. Section one sought infor-
mation about the qualification undertaken.
Sections two and three inquired about employ-
ment history before, during and after the
period of University study. The latter sections
also included questions about the importance
of particular subject areas for subsequent
career development. Section four asked
respondents about their impressions of the
course that they had undertaken, including
issues of quality and perceived strengths and
deficiencies.
PROFILE OF GRADUATES AND WORK
EXPERIENCE
Overall, no statistically significant differences
were evident between the two samples in any
of the demographic or subsequent education
criteria tested. As outlined in Table 1 a number
of common features characterizes the two
groups of respondents. One was the predomi-
nance of female students 72.1% in the case
of Hong Kong and 66.4% in the case of Aus-
tralia. This gender imbalance towards female
students is consistent with the findings of a
range of international studies where females
dominate the student population in tourism
and hospitality (Waryszak, 2002). The age

Table 1. Respondent profiles

Hong Kong
Polytechnic Victoria
University University
N % N % c2a
Gender: male 60 27.9 36 33.6 1.12
female 155 72.1 71 66.4
Age at graduation: 1725 177 80.8 83 77.6 0.47
2670 42 19.2 24 22.4
Mode of study: full-time 184 83.6 85 78.0 1.52
part-time 36 16.4 24 22.0
Have undertaken subsequent qualifications
after graduating from HTM: Yes 42 19.3 27 25.7 3.5
No 176 80.7 77 73.3

a
Chi-square test with two degrees of freedom.

Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
414 B. King, B. McKercher and R. Waryszak

profile was also relatively common, with 80.8%
of the Hong Kong respondents aged 25 or
younger upon graduation and 77.6% of
the Australian respondents in this category.
This indicates that the undergraduate student
profile in both institutions is relatively youth-
ful. A third commonality is the preponderance
of full-time study. This amounted to 83.6% in
the case of the Hong Kong respondents and
78.0% in the case of the Australian respon-
dents. A sizeable number of respondents have
proceeded to further formal study at degree or
diploma level after completing their under-
graduate degree in HTM 19.3% in Hong
Kong and 25.7% in the case of Australia.
Table 2 describes the professional and career
development profile of respondents. The table
reveals that about half of all respondents from

Table 2. Professional and career development profile

Hong Kong
Polytechnic Victoria
University University
N % N % c2a
Industry sector of Tourism related 42 20.5 23 21.9 6.3
current employer Hotel related 49 23.9 13 12.4
Catering related 17 8.3 13 12.4
Non-HTM related 97 47.3 56 53.3
Nature of first job HTM related 107 52.2 49 49.1
Non-HTM related 98 47.8 56 50.9
Current job Senior or middle management 28 13.7 41 38.7
titleb
Supervisor (supervisor/ass.sup./team 3 1.5 14 13.2
leader/captain)
Administrative executive/officer/R.A./sales 134 65.4 9 8.5
Rank and file/operational staff 14 6.8 13 12.3
Trainee 19 9.3
Professional (accountant/auditor/teacher) 6 2.9 15 14.2
Others 1 .5 14 13.2
Status of current Full-time 196 96.1 87 83.7 14.2***
job
Part-time 8 3.9 17 16.3
Extended internship Yes 92 42.6 73 68.9 19.6***
undertaken? No 124 57.4 33 31.1
Working prior to Yes 52 25.9 40 43.0 8.6**
joining HTM
studies No 149 74.1 53 57.0
Nature of job prior Tourism related 7 14.0 7 15.6 23.4***
to HTM studies
Hotel related 25 50.0 10 22.2
Catering related 11 22.0 2 4.4
Non-HTM related 7 14.0 26 57.8
Work undertaken Yes (same job before joining HTM) 26 12.6 38 35.2 90.2***
during period of
study Yes (different job before joining HTM) 44 21.3 58 53.7
No 137 66.2 11 10.2

a
Chi-square test with two degrees of freedom: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01.
b
Significance test not computed because of inadequate cell distribution in the cross-tabulation.

Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
Comparison of Australian and Hong Kong Graduates
both universities are currently working in jobs
outside the hospitality and tourism field. More
significantly perhaps, about half of all first jobs
reported were also outside the industry, indi-
cating a low take-up rate. Further research is
required to investigate why so few students
end up in the industry. Of those working in the
sector, relatively more Hong Kong than Aus-
tralian respondents were working in hotels
(24% versus 12%) whereas relatively more
Australian than Hong Kong graduates were
working in catering-related positions (12%
versus 8%).
Perhaps reflective of the different lengths of
time spent in the workforce by members of the
two sample groups, a higher proportion of the
Australian respondents indicated that they
were employed in middle or senior man-
agement positions, whereas the majority of
Hong Kong graduates reported that they were
employed in Administrative/executive/
officer/research assistant/sales positions.
Given the rather different nature of the two
samples, it is unclear whether any of the dif-
ferent employment outcomes are attributable
to the different industry environments in the
two locations. A number of PolyU graduates
were employed in trainee positions, whereas
none of the VU respondents attributed such
titles to their current job. It is unclear whether
the different findings reflect different industry
structures and employment patterns in the two
locations.
A larger proportion of the VU graduates
indicated that they had undergone an
extended internship (period of co-operative
education) as part of their course than their
Hong Kong counterparts. In the case of VU this
amounted to 68.9% of the respondents whereas
the comparable figure for Hong Kong was
42.6%. A number of reasons explain why
some did not participate in long internships.
Although the long internship programme is
mandatory in VU, students may be granted an
exemption if they have relevant work experi-
ence. Hong Kong students complete two
periods of shorter summer internship and as
stated previously long internships are a rela-
tively new phenomenon introduced only 5
years ago.
Some differences are evident in the work his-
tories of Australian and Hong Kong students
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
415
both prior to and during their course of study.
A relatively higher proportion of VU graduates
worked before commencing their degree pro-
gramme (43.0% versus 25.9%). Of these, a
significant proportion of Australian graduates
worked outside the HTM sector (57.8%),
whereas Hong Kongers who worked before
starting their studies were more likely to work
in the sector. Likewise, most Australians
worked during their course of study, whereas
this was rare amongst their Hong Kong coun-
terparts. (These figures consist of the respon-
dents who undertook the same work during
study as they had prior to commencing studies
as well as those who assumed a different job
role during their studies.) The high incidence
of concurrent work experience begs the
question of what role formal co-operative
education should play in instances where stu-
dents are gaining significant work experience
without necessarily being credited for this
experience as part of their studies.
THE QUALITY AND RELEVANCE OF
PROGRAMMES OF STUDY
A key element of the study was to evaluate
graduate perceptions of their educational pro-
grammes, including the quality of education
they received. Graduates were asked to assess,
on a five point Likert scale, the importance of
various aspects of their course of study for
securing their first job after graduation and
their current job, if different. Because of previ-
ously mentioned differences in how Asian and
non-Asian respondents answer scaled ques-
tions, mean scores have been rank ordered to
enable comparisons. Table 3 presents the per-
ceived importance of elements of their study to
finding first jobs after graduation, and Table 4
shows the results for their current positions.
Broadly similar results were reported by the
two student cohorts. Business related subjects,
general subjects and internships were ranked
consistently as being more important to the
students ability to acquire first jobs than spe-
cialised hotel, catering or tourism related sub-
jects. Likewise, recent work history, generic
business subjects and language proficiency
were more important in acquiring current jobs
than specialist subjects. This finding is not sur-
prising because only about half the graduates
Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
416 B. King, B. McKercher and R. Waryszak

Table 3. Ranking of importance of qualifications in HTM for first job after graduation (mean score)
Victoria University Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Business related subjects 3.74 English 4.08
General subjects 3.61 Business related subjects 3.82
Internship 3.33 Internship 3.75
Hotel related subjects 2.80 General subjects 3.60
English 2.76 Hotel related subjects 3.20
Catering related subjects 2.58 Catering related subjects 3.00
Research based subjects 2.37 Research based subjects 2.88
Tourism related subjects 2.27 Tourism related subjects 2.88

Table 4. Ranking of importance of qualifications in HTM for current job (mean score)
Victoria University Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Business-related subjects 3.84 English 4.16
Recent work experience 3.61 Recent work experience 3.92
English 2.80 Business-related subjects 3.76
Internship/industry 2.51 Internship/industry 3.21
Research-based subjects 2.36 Hotel-related subjects 3.04
Tourism-related subjects 2.17 Catering-related subjects 2.94
Catering-related subjects 2.00 Research-based subjects 2.93
Hotel-related subjects 1.95 Tourism-related subjects 2.83

entered into and have remained in the tourism
and hospitality sectors.
The generic subjects that respondents had
studied retained their perceived importance to
graduate career paths as graduates progressed
from their first, subsequent and then current
position. In contrast the perceived importance
of the hotel, catering and tourism related sub-
jects appeared to decline over time. Paired
sample t-tests of the Hong Kong graduates, for
example, revealed that there was no statisti-
cally significant difference between the per-
ceived importance of English and business
related subjects between first and current jobs,
while statistically significant differences were
noted in the perceived value of tourism, hotel
and catering subjects as well as the internship.
Similar findings were noted with the VU grad-
uates, where large differences were evident in
the perceived importance of internships, cater-
ing and hotel subjects as careers progressed. In
all instances, the perceived importance of these
items declined over time.
Based on responses to a seven-point Likert-
type scale, Table 5 provides some insights into
graduate perceptions of their course quality.

Table 5. Ranking quality of hospitality and tourism programmes (mean scores)

Victoria University Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Subject variety 5.50 Subject variety 4.67
Teaching 5.28 Subject relevance 4.64
Subject content 5.23 Subject content 4.42
Subject relevance 5.12 Teaching 4.34
Facilities 4.92 Facilities 4.30
Applied/practical nature 4.87 Applied/practical nature 4.13

Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
Comparison of Australian and Hong Kong Graduates
Mean scores are again rank ordered for com-
parison to accommodate cultural differences.
Both cohorts of graduates gave the highest
mean quality ranking to subject variety, and
subject content was ranked third, with facilities
and the applied or practical nature of the pro-
grammes rated positively, albeit at the bottom
of the list. Victoria University graduates iden-
tified the quality of teaching as being the
second most valuable aspect of their pro-
gramme, whereas PolyU graduates felt that
subject relevance was the second most impor-
tant feature.
Given the considerable attrition rate from
the hospitality and tourism industries and
given that many new graduates appear
unlikely ever to enter the industry, the authors
tested whether differences of perception
existed with respect to the quality of the pro-
grammes studied. Few differences were noted
in the perceived quality of the programmes
between those working in HTM and those
employed outside this sector. Subject content
was the only quality variable to be rated dif-
ferently within the Hong Kong sample
those in industry give it a higher mean score.
No statistically significant differences were
expressed by the Australian sample on any of
the quality variables.
Some differences were also noted between
the acquisition of first and current jobs in the
relative importance attributed to subject areas.
Hong Kong graduates working in industry felt
that tourism and catering subjects, in particu-
lar, played an important role in securing a first
jobs. Likewise, they also felt that their tourism
and hotel management subjects along with
their internship placements played a more
important role in securing their current
position than was the case with those not in
industry. In the case of the Australian sample,
there were significant differences between
those working in the industry and those
working outside.
Respondents were also asked a series
of open-ended questions about the relative
strengths and weaknesses of their programmes
and to offer suggestions for course content
improvement. Hong Kong graduates were
much more forthcoming with suggestions than
their VU counterparts. As indicated in Table 6,
practical training and the development of
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
417
generic business management skills were
reported as strengths of their respective pro-
grammes by both cohorts. Interestingly, and of
some concern, was the relatively low ranking
of the development of specialised tourism
and hotel management skills. Graduates also
noted that an imbalance between theory and
practice represented the most significant
deficiency of these programmes. This finding
highlights the age-old training versus
education conundrum facing university
providers.
Students proposed a number of suggestions
for improvements to the content of subjects.
They felt that less emphasis should be placed
on generic content, with more emphasis placed
on improving the sector-specific content of
specialist subjects. Hong Kong graduates were
more effusive in offering suggestions, propos-
ing that a more flexible internship and course
structure be considered. They also wanted
more language and information technology
subjects. Both cohorts suggested that the
number of accounting, economics and finance
subjects should be significantly decreased.
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
The study identified a number of tourism and
hospitality education issues that are common
to both Australia and Hong Kong. The findings
are broadly similar to those identified previ-
ously by McKercher et al. (1995). Furthermore,
informal discussions by the authors with col-
leagues elsewhere suggests that similar issues
exist in other jurisdictions. As a result, the
authors believe that the issues identified in
this study are universal concerns faced by
university-level tourism and hospitality
providers.
Up to half of all graduates either never enter
the industry or drop-out within a few years.
This reality produces curriculum challenges for
providers. Should they focus their subject
content on specialist hotel, catering and
tourism subjects, knowing that this material
may not be relevant to the careers of half of their
students following graduation, or should they
focus their attention on more generic business
studies subjects to serve the needs of the half of
their student base whose careers in the indus-
try will be short lived or non-existent? In a
Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
418 B. King, B. McKercher and R. Waryszak

Table 6. The course experience

Respondents
Hong Kong Victoria
Polytechnic University University
First strength:
internship/co-operative education 63 29
general business knowledge 35 18
knowledge of the tourism, hotel and catering fields 16 8
First deficiency:
impractical/excessively theoretical 36 8
subjects not specific/too general/too superficial 22 3
inadequate emphasis on general business 14 3
insufficient internships 13 3
improve tourism, hotel and catering related subjects 11 4
First suggestion for improvement:
improve internship flexibility in opting for international 20 3
increase practical/operational subjects 16 5
increase flexibility of subjects/subject sequences 12 1
strengthen emphasis on HTM Subjects 10 2
First subject to be added:
language 66 4
information technology 20 5
travel/tourism related 10 4
First subject to be deleted:
finance/economics/accounting 19 15

similar manner, higher education providers
must confront the need to offer a university-
level and quality education, emphasising intel-
lectual development, theory and problem
solving, with the desire evident amongst some
students for practical, training-orientated pro-
grammes. Getting the balance wrong may either
lead to an impression amongst key industry
stakeholders that the education is out-of-
touch and unresponsive, or to a view that pro-
vision is insufficiently distinct from course
provision in the vocational education and train-
ing sector. It is interesting to note that both insti-
tutions providing the focus of the present study
are former polytechnics whose earlier status
was much more clearly defined within a
binary system of Universities, Polytechnics
and VET (Vocational Education and Training).
Other curriculum issues arise. Amongst both
graduates generally and those working in the
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
HTM sector in particular, generic busi-
ness related subjects and general education
subjects are seen as being more valuable than
specialist subjects in securing employment.
Both schools are significant providers within
their respective regions, have a long history
of tertiary level tourism and hospitality
provision and a reputation for producing
high calibre graduates. Both institutions have
a substantial staff complement who possess
credible industry background and both
have strong industry advisory panels and
engage with industry at many levels. Yet, grad-
uate respondents from the two institutions
suggest that subject content could be further
improved. At the very least the industry
related activities of the two Schools and the
philosophies that underpin them could be
communicated more effectively to students
and graduates.
Int. J. Tourism Res. 5, 409420 (2003)
Comparison of Australian and Hong Kong Graduates
The study also highlights a further challenge
for the provision of tourism subjects. Among
the specialist areas, tourism subjects generally
received the lowest scores, with hotel and
catering subjects perceived as being more rele-
vant. To some extent this may be predictable
because hotel and catering management are
narrower fields of study than tourism and
lead to more clearly defined career paths. As a
result, the relevant subjects tend to be tailored
to specific functional departments within
hotels or to specific skill needs within food-
service provision.
By contrast, tourism is a broad field of study
leading to a diverse and eclectic range of
potential jobs for students on graduation,
making it virtually impossible to develop a
tightly focused curriculum. Moreover, much of
the more stimulating intellectual inquiry into
tourism that has driven curriculum develop-
ment has focused on the examination of the
tourism phenomenon in relation to different
disciplines (such as geography, anthropology
and sociology) and not to tourism as a business
actively. Even the tourism programmes that
operate within faculties of business tend to
include subjects with a strong planning or
social science foundation. Although such sub-
jects clearly contribute to a strong conceptual
understanding of what tourism is and how it
works, some students seem less interested in
learning about tourism as a field of study and
more in developing the specific skills required
for employment within the relevant industry
sector.
This study has identified a number of issues
that are common to tourism and hospitality
providers in Hong Kong and Australia.
Although the authors suspect that similar
results would be found elsewhere, this asser-
tion remains speculative in the absence of
empirical evidence. To date little systematic
research has been undertaken in other jurisdic-
tions on graduate career paths and perceptions
of the quality and relevance of their pro-
grammes. Further studies are needed to verify
or repudiate these findings within different
contexts. There also may be scope to draw out
graduate perceptions about the extent to which
tourism and hospitality constitute distinct
careers and areas of study. To what extent do
those planning careers in food service need to
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
419
know about tour operations and to what extent
do those pursuing careers in tour operations
need to know about food service and other
aspects of hospitality? Such questions are likely
to probe some of the tricky semantic distinc-
tions between travel and tourism, food service,
restaurants, hotels, catering and hospitality.
With a view to encouraging replications, the
authors would welcome the use of their survey
instrument and a sharing of their experiences
with other academics.
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