Cruise tourism ‘brain drain’: exploring the role of personality traits, educational experience and career choice attributes

Abstract

While tourism in general, and cruise tourism in particular, have been steadily growing over the last years, industry bodies and associations have reported and warned against the first signs of labour shortages. Indeed, a relatively high proportion of tourism and hospitality students opt out of the tourism sector within the first years after graduation. The research presented in this paper aims at exploring the factors affecting the career choices of cruise-tourism students (N = 167) and comparing the findings with those of the wider research in the tourism and hospitality domain. Our findings underline the role of the cruise sector’s reputation, as well as its perceived growth as central for attracting ‘young talents’. Entry-level employment conditions play a secondary role and personality profiles do not appear to influence the students’ intention to pursue a career in the cruise sector. Research implications and practical recommendations (also considering the post-COVID19 implications) are drawn.

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