Students as Co-Creators of Interdisciplinary Tourism Content: A Strategy to Help Prepare Creative, Problem-solving, Research Savvy, and Globally-Competent Hospitality Employees

Abstract

Tourism is intrinsically interdisciplinary and draws elements from numerous academic fields, but only a small number of foundational disciplines are formally presented to students in undergraduate hospitality and tourism textbooks, namely, introduction to tourism or hospitality, accounting/finance, operations, and marketing. This research explored the effectiveness of broadening the range of disciplines to which students are exposed through the use of a unique final project. Seventy-six students across three academic years were assigned a lesser-covered academic discipline, such as Music or Astronomy, and instructed to explore the intersection of this discipline with tourism to create original in-class presentations. As co-creators of classroom content, students developed and improved their self-directed learning and research skills, multidimensional knowledge and global competency. Results verify the potential of this pedagogical method, one that can easily be adopted and adapted to refocus student efforts on revealing niche tourism amenities in any country or culture.