Tourism students’ career strategies in times of disruption

Reichenberger, Ina Raymond Eliza Marguerite

This research explores current tertiary tourism students' career strategies as impacted by Covid-19 as a career shock event, utilizing Bourdieuan career theory comprising career field, career capital, and its internal and external recognitions. Based on a phenomenological approach we conducted 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews with under- and postgraduate tourism management students enrolled at two New Zealand universities. Findings show that participants adopt a temporal lens. Short to medium term career strategies are flexible in that a temporary exit from the career field is considered until changes in the external environment occur. In the long-term participants remained committed to their initially chosen career field, hoping for a more progressive, innovative, and sustainable approach to tourism. The still unpredictable future of tourism posed challenges in assessing the future value of especially students’ cultural career capital while increasing the need for additional social capital.