A different kind of higher education is needed, in the hospitality and tourism professions. It has to guarantee innovation, be able to prepare operators to benefit from the skills, tools, and knowledge arising from different disciplines like psychology, sociology, geography, anthropology, economics, and marketing. Moreover, the training paths need to be supported by human resource management policies capable of considering fresh content, innovative interpretations of roles and competencies, and consequently new career models. Development plans should be directed towards updating and integrating knowledge and skills, and they should also focus on being able to evolve and adapt to changing organizational, technological, and process conditions. Young professionals need to be educated so as to be able to enter quickly, comfortably, and effectively into the dynamics of the tourism industry, which is rapidly adapting to the globalization of the markets, given the increasing competition and changes to the traditional ways of working as well as the functional structures of organizations. Now more than ever before, such dynamics need to bring the relationship between market and consumer back into the center, understanding its complexity while resolving it with simplicity.
Keywords: Soft skills, training, education, tourism, management.
Roberta Maeran, Angelo Boccato, Massimo Bustreo, Valeria Micheletto, The itineraries of training for the tourism professions in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 4/2019, pp. 791-806, DOI:10.3280/RIP2019-004012