Diversified Education Strategies and Objectives for Advanced Tourism Talents

Talents are the prerequisite for the prosperity and development of an industry. The training of advanced higher tourism talents is essential to tourism development. However, the training models of advanced tourism talents in China are highly homogenous. The competitiveness of the talents thus cultivated cannot satisfy the demand of tourism development. Therefore, it is imperative to diversify the education of advanced tourism talents. Targeting at the graduates and students from the tourism major of colleges, this paper evaluated the training status of advanced tourism talents through questionnaire survey and interview, and pointed out various problems with the current training models: the training objectives are homogenous; the curriculum is too extensive; the faculty resources are insufficient; the teaching methods are backward and too theoretical; the students lack correct positioning, hardworking spirit, professionalism, and work abilities. Based on the survey results, diversified education strategies were proposed for advanced tourism talents from three dimensions: training objectives, training process, and training outputs. Then, a talent training model that integrates industry and teaching was created, highlighting the importance of work abilities. Besides, the authors presented the design concept of diversified curriculum, and provided a diversified practice teaching system. Taking the Thai language international tour guide major of a school for example, the diversification of training objectives, process, and outputs was discussed in detail. The research results provide a good reference for improving the training effect and teaching reform of advanced tourism talents.