Research on personnel training for sport tourism in southwest china

Introduction

With its appeal both as physical and touring activities, sport tourism has been more popular among all the tourism programs.[1] The natural and humanity resources, the bases for sport tourism in Southwest China, are unique and abundant. As the consumer market keeps expanding, the need for sport tourism professional has been imperative.[2] Consequently, the research on the personnel training mode from a developmental viewpoint will powerfully urge the tourism education, improving the quantity and quality of the professional, and contributing to the sustainable development of tourism trade in Southwest China. Such research will also provide theoretic support and experimental accumulation for higher institutions of physical education. A vast amount of research have been concentrated on the development, management and administration of tourism industry and exploitation of tourism products, but still quite few on the education of tourism and sport tourism, especially on the education mode with regional features. It is not only for the tourism education and development of higher physical education institutions, but also for the implementation of ‘Flourishing the Southwest with Science and Education; Flourishing the Tourism with Science and Education’.

Methods

Documentation; questionnaire; visiting; investigation on Web and so on. Several target cities, Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming, are selected because of their relatively well-developed tourism trade. The natural and humanity resources, the resource bases for the sport tourism, are analyzed. The advantages of sport tourism professional in the Southwest are analyzed from sociological, economic, tourism, sport, humanity and behavioral approaches. Starting with the present situation and developmental trend of sport tourism in the Southwest, social and cultural background of the personnel training is discussed with the policy about the exploitation in West China. The personnel types for tourism market in the Southwest are suggested with scientific demonstration.

Results

The personnel are crucial for the tourism trade. And the education is crucial for the quality of the personnel. The personnel training should be taken more seriously while the Chinese tourism trade is facing the chance of stepping to the whole world in the 21st century. The education of tourism is frail, and professional of sport tourism are scarce. At the end of the 20th century, the amount of professional for international tourism trade in Southwest was only 7.56%, and the amount of students in tourism specialty was only 9.02% of the total in whole nation.[3] Moreover, the level structures of tourism personnel were not rational. The strength for the education in the higher level was not strong enough, and the quantity of the personnel was not enough to meet the need of diverse market of sport tourism. As a kind of service trade, the manners, qualities and skills of the service are especially important for tourism trade. To training personnel with distinctive Southwest features, quality-oriented education should be the core; the need of market should be the orientation; and the inter-institutional cooperation and cooperation between institutions and enterprises should be conducted. The emphasis of training should be the abilities of communication, creation and management. The higher institutions of physical education should be the core roles for training of sport tourism personnel.

Discussion / Conclusions

1. The new ideas of modern education should be used to urge the development of sport tourism education in Southwest. Firstly, with an open mind of education, exchange and cooperation should be conducted among the tourism education institutions home and aboard. Secondly, with a whole concept of education, the education of sport tourism should be conducted diversely and with multi-levels in higher education, vocational education and adult education. Thirdly, with a quality-oriented education concept, the professional quality of tourism trade should be trained, including the professional consciousness and manners. Furthermore, with a creative education concept, the creation of educational content, methods, and organization and administration of teaching should be carried to improve the education quality.
2. With developmental viewpoint, the cooperation between institutions and enterprises, inter-institutional cooperation and international cooperation should be the diversified approaches to establish the training mode of sport tourism personnel.
3. The compound types of personnel should be the training objective; the quality-oriented education should be the core; the regional features should be stressed; the traits of the higher physical education institutions should be brought out; and the market is the training orientation.
4. The abilities of communication, creation and oral expression should be trained. The skills of tourism guide and service practice should be stressed. Abilities of management, information administration, and some sport skills should also be required.

References

[1]. Abrams, S, Macleod, D. and Waldren, J. (eds) (1997), Tourists and Tourism, Berg, Oxford, 160
[2]. Burkart, A, J, and Medlik, S(1981) Tourism: Past, Present, and Future, London,Heineman.P39
[3] Liu Feng Research on Tourism Development in West of China, Chinese Tourism Press, 2001，439