Are We Teaching What We Should? Re-Visiting Importance-Performance Analysis to Evaluate Tourism Studies Program

Abstract

Importance-Performance Analysis is a common technique that is used to understand customer satisfaction and service quality. As a method, it has been used effectively in education to close the loop between curriculum design, course feedback in class and graduate performance of learned tasks on the job. Using its' output helps to better understand the intended learning outcomes and related courses and thereby improve tourism studies program. This paper briefly revisits the IPA methodology integrated into Kirkpatrick's four-level framework of evaluation. A questionnaire survey was conducted among tourism studies graduates of the Higher Institute of Tourism and Hotels in Egypt in order to assess the degree to which learned knowledge or skills transferred to the actual job. The results demonstrated that data as a function of importance and performance allowed identification of working areas and those need further modification or rather removal. The implications derived by this study provide useful insights for enhancing programs of tourism studies in the Egyptian higher education.