Career advancement of tourism and hospitality management graduates : the case of Walter Sisulu University, Eastern Cape

Abstract

Hospitality graduates are entering the industry without an accurate understanding of the sector, and this could be the reason for many leaving employment in the industry (Brown, Arendt and Bosselman 2014:1). Graduates in South Africa have unrealistic expectations of employment in the tourism and hospitality industry and tend to exit the industry within few years after joining it as they are faced with a number of challenges (Sibanyoni, Kleynhans and Vibetti 2015:13). Perceptions and attitudes of tourism and hospitality graduates towards employment in the industry are not clearly understood. The focus of this study was to investigate perceptions on career advancement of tourism and hospitality graduates at Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape. The quantitative approach was adopted using structured online questionnaires to collect primary data. The population comprised of graduates in the Tourism and Hospitality Department from Walter Sisulu University, who graduated between the years 2004 to 2014. Simple random sampling was used to obtain a representative sample of 133 tourism and hospitality graduates. The key findings of the study reveal that the majority of respondents were currently employed in the tourism and hospitality industry on a full-time basis. Respondents who were working in the tourism and hospitality sector indicated that expectations in this employment sector were not adequately met. Respondents who are employed in other sectors showed a higher job satisfaction compared to those employed in the tourism and hospitality sector. The results further revealed that graduates employed in the tourism and hospitality sector were faced with far more challenges than those employed in other industry sectors. Even though previous studies on perceptions and attitudes of tourism and hospitality graduates towards employment in the industry indicated that graduates tend to exit the industry within few years after joining it, the current study findings indicate that the majority of graduates are still employed in the tourism and hospitality sector