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Tourism in Cameroon, just like in most Sub-Saharan African countries, despite its potential, has been lagging behind in international terms, with one of the causes being the lack of adequate sectoral policy tools and strategies to carry out developmental goals. This article considers the notion of smart specialisation, currently in the spotlight in European Union's regional policy, to analyse the situation in Cameroon. Firstly, it provides a brief outlook at the Cameroon's economy, coupled with a comprehensive look of innovation, training and tourism resources at regional level. Secondly, specialisation indices are calculated and a cluster analysis is implemented to find territorial patterns at regional level. Regions with high potential for tourism development are grouped into a cluster while other clusters are constituted by regions with lower potential for tourism and innovation. Hence smart specialisation may be an interesting concept to be implemented in Cameroon and other African regions as a planning tool, a proper exercise to discover the existing potential of the territories needs to be performed in order to define accordingly priorities and areas of intervention.

The paper presents a proposal for tourism education and training in Ghana. The expansion in Ghana's tourism industry has brought to the fore the need for trained manpower for the industry. Based on personal observation and published material this article proposes a framework to address weaknesses in tourism training in the country some of which are: (a) lack of co-ordination among employers, training institutions and government; (b) inability of training institutions to strike a balance between the 'thinking' and 'acting' aspects of their curricular; and (c) the low practical experience of tutors. For an effective training programme the suggested model demands collaboration among stakeholders, from curriculum design through the setting of competency standards to training and assessment.

Cover -- Copyright -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Glossary -- List of Figures -- List of Abbreviations -- Preface -- Chapter 1 Introduction To Hospitality Industry -- 1.1. Introduction -- 1.2. History Of Hospitality Industry -- 1.3. Nature And Characteristic Of Hospitality Industry -- 1.4. Growth And Development Of The Hotel Industry Around The World -- 1.5. Four Key Segments Of The Hospitality Industry -- 1.6. Technology In The Hospitality Industry -- 1.7. Significance Of Hospitality Industry In A Country's Economy -- 1.8. Advantage And Disadvantage Of Hospitality Industry

The search for quality in the provision of tourist services is a constant feature among players in the sector. This study aims to analyze the impact of training on the perception of accessibility among participants in a course on how to serve tourists with disabilities. It uses applied, exploratory and descriptive research, with bibliographic analysis and case studies. Two questionnaires were applied to the same group of participants; one before a training course and the other after. The results of the two questionnaires were then compared, using a mixed approach method. The results showed that the training was able to alter the participants' perceptions of accessibility and improve their skills and competencies in serving tourists with disabilities or reduced mobility. As an academic contribution, this research demonstrates the importance of training in the provision of tourist services for people with disabilities or reduced mobility. As a practical contribution, the article provides a resource for market analysts, human resources professionals, government, businessmen and researchers in the area of tourism, for the development of effective training actions to cater for tourists with disabilities or reduced mobility.Â

This community service program is aimed to improve the ability of Tangkeno youth in serving foreign visitor by using English. This is done due to the examine of the problems commonly faced by the Tangkeno in serving foreign visitor namely: (1) guiding services are still performed by external parties; (2) alternative tourist spots tend to be not visited by visitors who come without a guide, it is caused by the absence of a local guide who can direct visitors to that alternatives spot; and (3) although some residents have been delegated to learn English intensively in Pare, East Java, but they have not been able to serve up to guests.This community service program includes four phases of activities, namely: ((1) preparation, preparation of curriculum and syllabus of learning English Tourism; (2) the determination of the participants; (3) the English tourism training; (4) practice/micro guiding English; and (5 ) writing report. Furthermore, the method used in the training and mentoring include: (1) participatory methods, (2) focus group discussions (FGD) (3) division of the working group (4) practice and training in the classroom, (5) Analysts need. Finally, the resulting output are as follow (1) a local guide in the village Tangkeno; (2) MoU Government of Bombana and Nineteen Universitas Sembilanbelas November Kolaka; and (3) Scientific Publications

The seven executive training exercises in tourism in this e-book form an important step towards developing a library of executive training exercises with solutions in tourism management. While in real-life problems and opportunities do not come with an explicit list of options to select from, the view adopted in developing these training exercises is that creating tourism management stories describing dilemmas with explicit options is a useful learning method located between lecturing and learning from case study without explicit options. The novice benefits from considering a list of explicit options- learning to think beyond making a go versus no-go decision in regard to one option-and learns that creating a list of four plus options increases the likelihood of crafting an exceptional solution.

Tourism is regarded as a modern-day engine for growth and is one of the largest industries globally. South Africa has earmarked tourism as a key sector with excellent potential for growth and development. With its spectacular scenery, friendly people, world-class infrastructure, South Africa is becoming one of the most desired destinations in the world. Being a labour-intensive sector, with a supply chain that links across sectors, tourism is a priority sector in the government's planning and policy frameworks and it is perceived to be one of the six job drivers of the New Growth Path framework. To realise this vision, the government has embarked on skills enhancement drive to complement the tourism growth strategy. Initially tourism training was conducted in Technikons, and vocationally oriented colleges. With the introduction of tourism and hospitality education in conventional universities, a lot of programmes have sprouted up. But to what extent do the current curricula address the training needs in the industry? This paper argues that tourism and hospitality training should address the immediate needs of industry by preparing students for career related occupations. On one hand most graduates from conventional universities tend to delve deeper into more abstract issues, they tend to lack immediate skills that are demanded by employers.On the other hand graduates from colleges lack the aptitude and skills to drive innovation. Whilst higher education institutions play a significant role in the development of the hospitality and tourism industry manpower, they are failing to provide industry with knowledgeable graduates who are highly skilled with positive aptitudes, attitudes and behaviours towards work. The overpowering challenge facing higher education institutions is how to overcome the perceived lack of credibility of higher level hospitality and tourism management programs by the labour market. This paper identifies Work Integrated Learning (WIL) as the vehicle to prepare graduates for employability. The paper concludes with a set of critical success factors for higher education institutions, implications to curricula development and necessary industry partnerships.

This article evaluates a tourism-oriented policing (TOP) training program that was conducted with police officers in the Caribbean island of Tobago. It focuses on TOP and its increasing role in contemporary police practices, especially at destinations that depend on tourism for survival. The article explores previous tourism policing approaches, the need for tourist safety and the necessity for police departments to contemporise their policing by moving away from former paradigms of police officers as generalists. The study utilises a quantitative case study approach in surveying the TOP training program, with data analysed from pre- and post-test questionnaires of 25 participants. Descriptive results indicate general satisfaction with the training, a belief that tourism security is beneficial to the tourism industry in Tobago and that senior police officers should all receive TOP training.

Education and training have always been considered factors of utmost importance in economic development. To this aim, governments constantly strive to develop effective education systems, creating education and training structures at different levels which reflect the socio-economic conditions of each state. Since tourism as a social activity is internationally recognized as contributing significantly to economic and cultural development, the organization of the tourism education and training system is a research area of particular academic interest. More specifically, the structure of tourism education can be often confusing for both trainees and employers. This confusion is accentuated by factors such as the diversity of tourism as an interdisciplinary field and its inherent feature of employment seasonality, features directly linked to tourism enterprises, SME structure, function and employability opportunities. This article delves into the multidimensional system of tourism education and training in Greece, a country that is economically reliant on tourism. In particular, the education system is being analysed during the period of the country's economic crisis. Findings point out long-standing weaknesses of the education system intensified by uncoordinated political action under the pressure of the economic crisis. Analysis of tourism educational policy can possibly account for the ways knowledge is translated into practice, particularly in the area of small firms. This paper aspires to point out the relationship between government policy in Higher Education and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by highlighting the importance of tourism education on local economy. It turns out that in Greece, tourism education and training suffers from inherent weaknesses that are not necessarily due to the economic crisis but are potentially exacerbated by it.