The new generation in the industry: Hospitality and tourism undergraduates’ perceptions of need for learning foreign languages in their future careers

Abstract

This study attempts to shed some light on the area of tourism education by exploring perceptions of a group of tourism and hospitality undergraduates on their language needs in their future careers, and to examine whether this perception would vary according to the students’ demographic data. This study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey design that covered 200 hospitality and tourism undergraduates at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in November 2018. Data were analyzed using independent sample T-test and one-way ANOVA. Findings showed that English is the most important foreign language when seeking a job in the hospitality and tourism industry, followed by Chinese and Japanese. Moreover, the results revealed that significant variations between students’ perceptions and their demographic data are identified. Statistical significance was found based on gender, work experience, country by region, and length of work experience. Implications of the findings on curriculum development in order to help students acquire the language proficiency needed to perform their future jobs effectively are also discussed.