EMPOWERING THE TOURISM STUDENT'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS TRAINING AS A MARKETING STRATEGY: A PROPOSED GUIDELINES

Abstract

The tourism industry continues to grow, yet tourism students often lack essential entrepreneurship skills. This study aims to develop a structured guideline for a marketing strategy that enhances tourism students' entrepreneurial competencies, fostering self-employment opportunities. By addressing the complexities of entrepreneurship training, the research seeks to provide valuable insights for both students and the industry. A descriptive research design was employed, utilizing Likert scale survey questionnaires and focus group interviews with second- and third-year Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management students as respondents. The study explored opportunities and challenges in entrepreneurship training. Data were quantified and analyzed using frequency counts, percentage distribution, weighted means, ranking, and a 4-point Likert scale. The researchers examined the effectiveness of empowering tourism students’ entrepreneurship skills training as a marketing strategy within the context of existing literature. Findings indicate that tourism students face challenges in entrepreneurship training, particularly in competencies, time management, and self-confidence. Balancing vocational skills and critical thinking proves difficult, and time management issues contribute to lower-quality outputs. However, students recognize that entrepreneurship skills can be acquired through active participation in entrepreneurial activities. The study highlights key barriers tourism students face in entrepreneurship training, including a lack of competencies, time management difficulties, and low confidence levels, which may impact their academic experience and future careers. Given the growing demand for tourism entrepreneurs, structured and comprehensive entrepreneurship training is necessary. The study recommends targeted training programs focusing on core competencies, time management, and confidence-building. Limitations include a small sample size and the absence of consideration for prior entrepreneurship experience. Further research is needed to develop more effective training strategies.