KNOWLEDGE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT - STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to analyse students’ attitudes about the concept of sustainable development and knowledge significant for its implementation in tourism. More precisely, the aim was to determine which knowledge students perceive as particularly important for the application of sustainable development and whether there are significant differences in the attitudes of students of different years of study regarding gender, year and status (full time and part time students) of study. Methodology – For the formation of the theoretical part, secondary data sources were used, based on the analysis of relevant literature in the field of sustainable tourism development, such are articles and reports. The research part includes quantitative data collection based on an online questionnaire distributed to students of the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management of all years, enrolled in the study of Management of Sustainable Development, to assess the importance of relevant knowledge about the sustainable development and also their own knowledge in this f ield. Data processing was performed through the statistical program for social sciences - SPSS while descriptive statistics were used for the purposes of data processing and interpretation. Findings – Based on the conducted research, the respondents evaluated the importance of knowledge for the implementation of sustainable development of tourism regarding environmental, social and economic aspects. In addition, the respondents expressed personal assessments of their level of knowledge/habits/actions in the mentioned areas. Also, differences will be determined with regarding the gender, field and year of study of the respondents. Respondents mostly show positive attitudes towards sustainable development and assess the importance of further education for sustainable development. The emphasis should be on acquiring knowledge related to sustainable development, developing abilities and skills that will help in facing the challenges of the 21st century, through organizing workshops, debates, learning to solve problems, promoting extracurricular activities such as volunteering or participating in local community projects, etc. Contribution – Contribution of the paper is in identifying and ranking the importance of specific knowledge for sustainable development from the perspective of students. According to the results, new educational programs of student interest could be developed. This research presents an opportunity for students to develop a methodological approach to the self-assessment process through a questionnaire.