Enhancing Tourism Education in Bulgarian Universities

Abstract

The quality of tourism education and the efforts to continuously improve it are of critical and strategic importance for the development of the sector in any country. This is even more important and  applies with full force to Bulgaria, as tourism represents a significant part of our gross domestic product and we are dependent on high-quality tourism services in order to  establish high end position in the market of high-income visitors. The article addresses two important aspects of tourism education: tourism sector and its education environment in Bulgaria and identify the main factors potentially influencing this sector.

Research methods are based on analysis of contemporary literary sources and review of the Bulgarian tourism education and the modern tourism curricula offered by other universities. They have been studied innovative and efficient educational methods used by other tourism university programs, which could contribute to more integrated investment and efficient use of existing resources.

This article proposes potential strategies for enhancing university programs in tourism education. Some of the efficient modern educational methods serve as examples of innovative teaching methods that Bulgaria could adopt.