Training in Swiss tourism — Analysis and strategies

Our rapidly changing times call for constant renewal of competencies. The following competencies can be described as being of central importance in tourism: problem‐solving competencies, personality traits, communication competency, socio‐cultural competency and entrepreneurial competency. A written gap‐analyse involving all sorts of tourism exponents shows the biggest gaps between today's quality and tomorrow's importance as follows: social competency (1), personality competency (2) and leadership (3). For greater transparency in tourism vocational training an attempt was made to subdivide it into the following four fields: hospitality industry with hotels, gastronomy etc., transport with tourist mo‐bility, public transport, boat travel etc., new professional fields such as sports and cultural activity manage‐ment, wellness, MICE etc. and the tourism sector in the narrower sense with tourism organizations, tourist offices, tour operators etc. The article makes clear, that specialized colleges of higher education and expert examinations, tourism should be interpreted as a comprehensive phenomenon with modular specializations. No further subdivisions should be attempted. The central challenge for tourism actors lies in managing the ongoing radical change and and adjust vocational training programms. On the basis of the findings of the empirical survey and the discussions with experts, the article submitts twelve recommendations for the tourism and educati‐on policy.