| Recently, Taiwan has moved into a position to advance in the travel and tourism industry. The hospitality industry needs not only trained managers, but managers with educational skills. This has led to the rapid growth of hospitality education at the college and university level. However, hospitality education has been considered a relative newborn in comparison to other programs. It would be relevant to investigate the current hotel management curricula found in universities and colleges. This study investigated the relationship between industry competencies and hotel management courses. Moreover, the competencies influencing career success and the courses contributing to career development in the hotel industry were determined. Finally, differences that existed between educators' and practitioners' perceptions toward hotel courses and industry competencies were identified.; Two researcher-developed survey instruments were used to collect data from 200 practitioners who were managers or assistant managers of 56 international tourist hotels and 150 hospitality educators at 29 institutions in Taiwan. Response rates of 48.0% and 44.7% from practitioners and educators, respectively, produced a well balanced sample. Instrument reliability and validity were reported. The frequency analysis was employed to provide demographic profiles of the survey participants. Inferential statistics, including t tests, one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs), factor analysis, canonical correlation analysis, and multiple regression were performed to answer the study research questions.; Following are the conclusions that emerged from the present study: (1) hospitality education in Taiwan provides adequate preparation for hospitality professionals with competencies required by the hotel industry, (2) both the general management skills and technical skills are critical to career success of graduates entering the hospitality industry, (3) the competencies relate to communication skills and interpersonal relations most influence career success in the hotel industry, (4) the courses relate to communication skills and management most contribute to career development in the hotel industry, (5) practitioners consider management-related competencies to be more important than do educators, and (6) the respondents' age years of employment, and functional area are the demographic characteristics that significantly influence their perceptions toward required competencies and hotel management courses. |
