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PURPOSE This paper should answer the questions: “when and why did the changes in the tourism education appear?”, “how can the education system adapt to the changes caused by COVID-19?” and “what has been changed in the education of future tourism experts at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business since COVID-19 affected Croatia?”. Objectives, set in this paper, are to: analyze the situation in tourism education caused by COVID-19 generally and at the Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb during and after the pandemic, in order to point out the possible guidelines for the future tourism education development. RESEARCH METHODS As the paper focuses on the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business and its tourism education, the population, that represents the full deliberate sample of this qualitative research, includes all the lecturers at the Department of Tourism. There are six professors, five assistant professors and one expert associate of the Department who teach different fields of tourism and different approaches to this situation. Due to the special epidemiological measures, the questionnaires will be sent via email as a Google Forms and it will include questions regarding the tourism education in the last year at the Faculty and its modifications caused by the pandemic. The lectures will be asked to answer the different types of questions about changes, improvements and adapting the tourism education to the pandemic situation and their appearance in the practice. The results will be collected automatically and anonymously and the data analysis will be performed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results of this study will be correlated with the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism education at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business and how the lectures react to this crisis where tourists significantly changed their behaviour and habits. Key findings, including the adjustment of the Department of Tourism members to the pandemic situation will be a base for the further discussion, which can lead to the improvements of tourism education, implementing modified syllabuses and introducing new courses. This research can contribute to the level of tourism education quality at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business and it can be implemented to other universities, faculties and departments within and outside the Republic of Croatia. This paper is the first empirical research in Croatia whose purpose is to define problems in tourism education caused by the pandemic at the institution. IMPLICATIONS This paper contributes to the future development of tourism by standing out the importance of changing the perspective in tourism education and giving the real image of it. As students are the future of a country's economy and tourism, it is important to teach them how to deal with crisis management by adapting to the market and new changes. The key findings of this paper can be implemented in the future development strategy of higher education institutions which need to be focused on the big impact of this situation. The example of this research and the University of Zagreb should be implemented by other universities whether they teach tourism or not, since the research of the impact of COVID-19 and its consequences on the economy, can contribute to the future sustainable development guidelines. |
