TRAVEL PRACTICE OF THE NEW GENERATION OF TOURIST MANAGERS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DEBRECEN

Abstract

Changes of the travel habits of our students have been experienced in the University of Debrecen characterized by decreasing knowledge concerning Hungary and infrequent travels. To confirm or reject our hypotheses based on our experiences and to work out proposals for the necessary changes in the education, an investigation was initiated which focuses on the travel habits of university students.

The online questionnaire was completed by current and former students. These have been sorted according to the university, the first university year and qualifications. Thus, the analysed group includes students who begun their university studies in the last 15 years as geographers, or specialized in geography (including tourism), environmental sciences or tourism-hospitality.

The hypothesis that the number of the national travels is decreasing due to the increasing international travels can be rejected, based on the national and international mobility values. On the other hand our results prove that in terms of the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and the elaboration of the successful professional work in the chosen special fields (earth and environmental sciences, tourism), these travels are less valuable in both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Among the factors influencing the choice of destination, the effect of university education is more considerable than it was expected.