Tourism Education: Students’ Perceived Values of Field Trips

Abstract

Field trips may best be viewed as a form of short-term experiential learning offering meaningful experiences that play an extremely crucial role in successful educational initiatives. The study of field trips has largely been overlooked by education-related literature that generally focuses on classroom, text-based, and, more recently, computer- or electronic media-based learning. Within the tourism context, only 2% of the literature is associated with education and training. In the light of this literature gap, this study examines the perceived values of field trips through the eyes of tourism students. The sample was a group of tourism-major students who recently went on an international field trip in partial fulfillment of the course requirements. Online survey was employed to collect data which were then analyzed using both descriptives and content analysis. The findings were in accord with those of previous studies, promoting the five key values of field trips. The study confirmed the importance of incorporating field trips in the curriculum not for the sole purpose of knowledge acquisition or enhancement but also for students’ personal and social growth.