How did Covid-19 affected career intentions of students studying tourism

Abstract

This study aims to determine whether there is a difference between the career plans of the students majoring tourism programs before and after the corona virus and disease pandemic. A total of 705 people studying tourism in different universities in Turkey were surveyed. Paired samples T test was conducted to determine whether there is a difference between tourism education students' intention to work in the industry before and after Covid-19. Independent samples T test was conducted to determine whether there is an average difference between pairs, one-way ANOVA was conducted to measure whether there is a difference between multiple groups. The Tukey test, Chi-square analysis, the Marginal Homogeneity test were used to determine whether there is a relationship between variables and dependencies. The results indicate that there are significant differences between the groups in terms of the age criterion. The participants studying gastronomy, cookery and food and beverage were more willing to pursue a career than those receiving tourism management education after corona virus and disease pandemic. It is understood that the participants receiving tourism education have differences in career intentions due to the pandemic. The study reveals that the number of participants intending to pursue a career in tourism was higher before corona virus and disease but decreased after corona virus and disease.