Student‘s career motivation in tourism sector

Research problem: What are the motivating factors for students choosing career in tourism sector? Research aim: determine student‘s career motivation in tourism sector. Research focus: student‘s career motivation in tourism sector. Goals of the research: 1. Overview the concepts of motivation and motives; 2. Introduce career development and planning stages for choosing career in tourism sector; 3. Identify Lithuanian Sport University (LSU) ‘Sports recreation and tourism’ (I,II,III,IV course) and School of tourism and maritime technology (ESTM) ‘Tourism and recreation’ (I,II,III course) study programs student’s career motivation in the tourism sector. Research methods: literature analysis, questionnaire survey, descriptive statistics analysis. Results and conclusions: The result of the analysis show that most students of Lithuanian Sports University (LSU) and School of tourism and maritime technology (ESTM) universities have only little knowledge about career opportunities in tourism industry and for them is very difficult to define areas in which they may find employment after graduation. Possibly the most alarming finding to come out of this study is that students are attached to the stereotypical tourism and leisure industry jobs and can not imagine the other areas of jobs where they could adapt their knowledge and competencies. The main areas in which students are planning to pursue their careers are tourism, leisure and entertainment sectors, event planning companies and accommodation sector. In summary we can draw the conclusion that only small part of the students see themselves working in other areas not related to tourism that demonstrate students appropriate study choices