Educational and training imperatives for future tourism competencies: The case of Slovenia

BACKGROUND: Research has long shown that there is a need for better tourism education. Previous research has mainly focused on management’s perceptions of the need for future competencies in tourism, while employees’ perceptions in general have not been properly investigated. OBJECTIVE: This paper identifies tourism employees’ perceptions of the competencies needed in the tourism industry in the future. METHODS: Based on a survey questionnaire, we analysed the attitudes of 226 tourism employees regarding the competencies they estimate they will need in the future. RESULTS: According to the employees, the most important competencies are a high level of hospitality, the ability to work with people, cooperation with stakeholders and emotional intelligence. In contrast, digital literacy is rated as less important, indicating that employees expect tourism to continue to be primarily a ‘human contact’ industry. We found statistically significant differences in respondents’ assessments in relation to their education, hierarchical position, age and area of work in tourism, but not in relation to their gender. CONCLUSIONS: The findings have practical value for tourism curriculum and training developers at all levels of education, and also provide important details with regard to the need for future research.