The impact of entrepreneurship education on tourism students’ entrepreneurial intention in South Africa

ABSTRACT This paper explores the impact of entrepreneurship education on tourism students’ entrepreneurial intention, and insights of the desirability and feasibility of starting a tourism-related business upon graduation. A structured questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 154 randomly selected tourism students in a comprehensive University in South Africa. Data analyses included descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses to address research objectives. The results indicate that entrepreneurship education influences tourism students’ entrepreneurial intentions, including students’ perceptions of the desirability and feasibility of starting tourism-related businesses. The findings further suggest that some respondent profile variables have influences on how tourism students perceive entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial behaviour. The study recommends that the university that is studied implement a variety of reform programmes aimed at increasing employability or self-employment among university tourism graduates. Among them is the addition of a new entrepreneurship track to the undergraduate curriculum. Students, as from their first year of study should be invited to apply for the entrepreneurship education track, which includes business training as well as individualised coaching sessions with industry mentors. This will aid in the formation of professional networks, increased entrepreneurship process knowledge base, and self-efficacy among tourism students who want to become tourism entrepreneurs.