A CONCEPTUALISATION OF PROFESSIONALISM IN TOURISM

The success of the global tourism industry will ultimately depend on its professionalism (Edgell et al., 2008). Tourism professionalism is a multidimensional concept, but lacking consensus on its dimensions; this paper addresses this issue by presenting a conceptualisation of professionalism. This paper extends Hall’s (1968) early work on professionalism, which conceptualised professionalism as involving 5 dimensions. Based on the literature and the tourism context, this paper uniquely argues that there are 10 discriminant dimensions of professionalism. It is perceived that the authors’ study on tourism professionalism will make a significant contribution to the focalised knowledge streams and provide transitional countries with insights into their support, for example, through educational interventions. Keywords: Professionalism, Conceptual framework, Tourism Education