The Relationships Between Tourism And Hotel Industry Labour Market Determinants And The Number Of Graduates

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the existence of a relationship between tourism and hotel industry labour market determinants and the number of graduates in the sector in Croatia. Although, the expansion of Croatian tourism and hotel industry in recent years resulted in a growing number of higher education institutions in those sectors, the internationalization of study programmes and their redesigning to better meet the labour market is needed. Furthermore, there is a necessity of labour market features improving to create a motivating working environment for future employees. Design – The paper presents an explorative analysis designed to analyse Croatian tourism and hotel industry labour market and the number of higher education graduates in those sectors. Methodology – In investigating whether or not, and in what extend the number of tourism and hospitality graduates is affected by the sectors key development determinants and labour market features, the neural networks and the multiple regression methodology were used. Findings – The results showed that, although there is a relationship between the selected variables, the research hypothesis cannot be confirmed. In future, more efforts should be addressed in filling the gap, both in theory and practice. The originality of the research – The paper presents a new approach in modelling tourism-based issues combining alternative methods with traditional ones.