Evaluating the role of tourism and hotel institutes in developing the entrepreneurial culture of students

Abstract

The development of an entrepreneurial culture among university students and various disciplines has become a necessary requirement in light of the global trend towards self-employment and the expansion of entrepreneurial projects. In light of this, the study aimed at evaluating the role of tourism and hotel higher education institutions in developing the entrepreneurial culture among students, measuring their attitudes towards self-employment after graduation, and identifying the most important obstacles facing the development of entrepreneurial culture. The questionnaire was relied upon as a tool for collecting study data, as 834 questionnaire forms were randomly distributed on a sample of students of tourism and hotel institutes in the departments of hotel studies and tourism studies. 608 valid questionnaires were analyzed. The results of the study concluded that there is an intermediate role for tourism and hotels higher education institutions in developing the entrepreneurial culture. The results of the study also highlighted that students have positive attitudes to self-employment after graduation. The results also indicated that there are many obstacles facing the development of entrepreneurial culture, such as the lack of training courses organized by the Institute to encourage students to become entrepreneurs, and the lack of confidence of students with entrepreneurial ideas and projects in encouraging and supporting the Institute for them. Furthermore, the results showed that there were no statistical differences in the responses of the study sample to the role of tourism institutes and hotels in developing entrepreneurial culture due to demographic variables.