The field of tourism geography has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. Tourism geography education plays a vital, if often overlooked, role in this growth. Tourism geography education has been viewed as a means of engaging students with the world around them, preparing them as future tourists, and training them for careers in tourism. Yet, the sub-discipline has long been dismissed as the ‘study of fun’ compared to more ‘serious’ topics of geographic inquiry. Contemporary geography education seeks to provide students with the tools to understand the world and to work toward solutions for important current issues. Thus, tourism geography education is thus well-positioned to tackle the wide-ranging changes in the tourism system as well as the significant impacts that tourism has on peoples and places. It could be argued that the need for tourism geography education has never been stronger. Still, with changes, and crises, in higher education, both geography and tourism programs have come under threat. This chapter discusses the threats, opportunities, weaknesses, and strengths, (TOWS analysis) of tourism geography. It gives particular attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism geography education. Finally, it considers strategies for maintaining the vitality of tourism geography education.
Mots clés : tourism|geography|education |TOWS analysis|COVID-19
A103905VN