Education tourism: linking pleasure travel with tertiary education in the youth market

This paper explores opportunities for regional universities to develop specific short courses that young travellers could undertake as part of a holiday experience. The Cairns campus of James Cook University was chosen as a representative of a regional university since the campus is located in a destination that attracts a large number of international and domestic youth travellers. Research objectives include investigating the potential demand for diverse short courses; to identify which factors influence respondents’ decisions to undertake further studies and to evaluate factors that may encourage or discourage respondents from studying in Cairns. Results indicate that 35% of respondents would possibly consider undertaking a short course in Cairns in the future with a preference for shorter courses for either academic credit or personal interest