Education and business requirements for the competencies and qualifications of modern tourism personnel

The modern stage of tourism development is characterized by a high level of differentiation of professional activity. It influences the increasing requirements towards the range of competencies and qualifications of tourism personnel. To find out the main directions of modernization of professional education programs it is necessary to monitor and systemize the requirements of the employers in the tourism sector. The authors carried out an expert survey and analysed the data gathered. Based on the results of the survey the main directions of modernization were described. It has been found out that a practice-oriented approach appears to be advantageous as a basis of modernization of educational programmes. The integration of business and education entities might contribute to the process of making education practice-oriented