Student Motivation and Preference of Studying Hospitality and Tourism Management Programmes in Polytechnics: A Study of Hospitality and Tourism Management Students-Ho Polytechnic

The main purpose of the study was to find out the motives and preference of students studying Hospitality and Tourism Management programmes in Ho Polytechnic. Questionnaires were administered to 113 Higher National Diploma (HND) students pursuing Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) programme to solicit their views on the choice of this programme in Ho Polytechnic. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16. The results of the study revealed that, there were four motivational factors influencing the choice of HTM programmes as follows: job opportunities at the government sector, parental influences and other factors such as ease of studying the programme. The implication is that if these students are not educated on the choice of selecting programmes in tertiary institution before completing Senior High Schools, parental influences and other factors may enable them to opt for programmes that they may not be interested in. They may thus end up not being in the right profession eventually. The aggregate effect is that considering the rate at which the tourism industry is advancing, there exists the possibility of shortfall of skills in the tourism industry in the near future. Keywords: Preference, Hospitality& Tourism (HTM), Motivation, Programme, Ghana Tourist Board ( GTB)