Janet C. Kimeto
Janet C. Kimeto
School of Physical and Biological Sciences
RESEARCH TOPIC:
Modelling Tertiary Tourism Education For Informing Tourism Destination Service Quality In Kenya
ABSTRACT:
Tourism is considered one of the tools for sustaining the economic development of most countries including Kenya. Continued sustenance of the tourism industry requires human capital with the right skills and competencies. Given the economic importance of tourism to Kenya’s economy, both the government and the private sectors have invested heavily in training and human capacity development for the tourism industry. As a result, Kenya has a number of tertiary tourism education institutions that produce potential employees for the tourism industry annually. Despite this, there is need to establish a stronger link between theory and practice so as to meet the needs and expectations of the industry with regard to tourism service delivery in the destination. The main objective of this study was to model tertiary tourism education for informing tourism destination service quality in Kenya. Specifically, the study set out to determine perceived relevance of tertiary tourism education attributes among tourism graduate employees and tourism managers in Kenya; to identify tourism skills and competencies perceived relevant for providing quality tourism services in Kenya; to determine the influence of tertiary tourism education attributes on desired tourism service skills and competencies in Kenya; to determine the influence of tourism skills and competencies on perceived destination service quality; and to develop a tourism education quality-destination service quality model for tourism industry in Kenya. The study used quantitative approach and adopted a cross-section survey design. Quantitative data was collected using self-administered questionnaires from three sets of population namely tertiary tourism graduate employees (385) and tourism managers and supervisors (385). To get the target sample size, multi-stage sampling consisting of stratification, proportionate and simple random sampling were used. Means and standard deviations and independent-sample t-test were conducted in SPSS to determine perceived relevance of tertiary tourism education attributes among tourism graduate employees and tourism managers and to identify tourism skills and competencies perceived relevant for providing quality tourism services. The results indicate that all the 17 tourism education attributes were perceived to be relevant by tertiary tourism graduate employees and tourism managers and supervisors. However, the relevance perception was high among the tertiary tourism graduate employees than among tourism managers. The results also indicate that all the 32 tourism competencies and skills attributes were perceived by tertiary tourism graduate employees and tourism managers and supervisors to be relevant in providing quality tourism services, with relevance perception being high among the tertiary tourism graduate employees than among tourism managers and supervisors. Factor analysis on the 32 skills and competencies attributes resulted in a four-factor solution namely social skills/competencies, methodological skills/competencies, professional skills/competencies and leadership skills/competencies that accounted for 23.77%, 18.42%, 17.57% and 16.91% of the total variance explained. PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 3.2.8 was used to determine the influence of tertiary tourism education attributes on desired tourism service skills and competencies; to determine the influence of tourism skills and competencies on perceived destination service quality; and to develop a tourism education quality-destination service quality model for tourism industry in Kenya. The results indicate that the four sets of tourism skills and competencies were significantly influenced by the three tourism education factors. The model predictive relevance results through blindfolding indicates that all the exogenous constructs in the model adequately predict their corresponding endogenous constructs given that the least Q2 value was 0.04. The SRMR fit measure was <0.08 and the RMS Theta <0.12 indicating model fitness. The new model developed by the study offers insights and guidelines to tertiary tourism education and tourism stakeholders in predicting tourism destination service quality in Kenya which will then translate to destination competitiveness.